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Box Score
DULUTH, Minn. (May 19, 2018) – The 2018 season came to a close on Saturday for the North Central College baseball team at the NCAA Division III Midwest Regional Championship, dropping a 8-4 decision to the University of Dubuque inside Wade Stadium.
For the third-straight game in the regional, the Cardinals were forced to play from behind as the Spartans strung together three hits to plate a run in the bottom of the third.
North Central evened the score in the top of the fifth as
Rob Marinec lined a one-out single to left center and advanced to second on an error by the Spartan left fielder.
Ryan Scott followed with a base-hit to move Marinec up a base ahead of
Matt Sutherland who promptly knotted the score with a RBI-single to right center.
The Cardinals took their first lead of the game the following inning as
Michael Mateja and
Mike Wisz each walked to start the frame. After Mateja was erased on an attempted sacrifice bunt,
Colin Weilbacher came through with a RBI-single to right, scoring Wisz to give the Cardinals a 2-1 lead. Marinec then increased the lead 3-1 with a single to left, scoring
John Carmody.
Just like the night prior however, one bad inning turned out to be the difference in the ballgame as two errors came back to haunt North Central in the bottom of the sixth. With the bases loaded and nobody out, Tyler Lewan lined a bases-clearing triple down the left field line and came around to score on a Cardinal throwing error in the attempt at third, quickly turning a two-run deficit into a two-run lead for the Spartans with just one swing of the bat.
The Spartans (26-16) added one more that half inning and one more in the bottom of the seventh to take a 7-3 lead into the eighth where the Cardinals would push across one more but it was too little too late Nathan Schneiderman closed the door for Dubuque in the ninth.
Mateja finished 2-for-3 with a walk and run scored, finishing the season batting .444, the eighth highest single-season average in program history. Quade finished 2-for-4 atop the lineup, while Marinec also finished 2-for-4 with a run scored and one driven in. Weilbacher added a pair of RBI, while Wisz was 1-for-3 with a walk and run scored, finishing the season with 73 RBI, just one shy of the single-season record.
"It's a sad day for sure," said head coach
Ed Mathey, "but this particular team in the last four years has won four conference titles and been to the NCAA Regionals each of the last three years so it's a lot to be proud of.
We've done a lot of good things this year and as much as it hurts right now, when they think back upon this year it will be nothing but positive thoughts and they should be proud of it."
North Central closes out the season with an overall record of 29-14, the seventh-winningest season in program history.
