Contact: Drew Sauer, Assistant Sports Information Director, 630-637-5324

Box Score

May 4, 2018 – Generating some late inning magic to erase a five-run, ninth-inning deficit, the North Central College baseball team could not complete the comeback over North Park University on Friday in the series opener, falling 8-6 in 10 innings.

Despite the loss, North Central clinched the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) regular season title outright, as Carthage College suffered a 10-6 defeat against Illinois Wesleyan University this evening.

Trailing 6-1 heading to the bottom of the ninth inning, Eric Outlaw led off with a single, followed by a Michael Mateja walk and a Mike Wisz hit by pitch loaded the bases with nobody out.  John Carmody then cut the Viking lead 6-2 with a sacrifice fly to right, scoring Outlaw.

Rob Marinec followed with a RBI-single through the left side, scoring Mateja while drawing the Cardinals to within three, with the tying run coming to the plate.  Following a strikeout for the second out of the inning, Ryan Scott was down to his final strike when he connected on a high fly ball to deep left field that just cleared the fence, a perfect time for his first homerun of the season, shocking the Vikings to knot the score 6-6.

That excitement did not last long for North Central however, as Joe Koutnik came through with a two-out RBI-single, scoring Richard Silva who singled to lead off the 10^th and advance to second on a sacrifice bunt.  Cullen Gilbertson proceeded to give North Park a much needed insurance run, plating Koutnik on a double to the right-center field gap, increasing the Viking lead 8-6.

The Cardinals had the tying run at the plate in the bottom of the 10^th, but Andy Robbins was able to close out the contest to earn his first victory of the season.

Mateja finished 1-for-2 from the plate, drawing four walks while scoring once.  Wisz finished 2-for-4, while Scott was 2-for-5 with three RBI and Marinec added a pair of hits and two runs scored.

Seth Dovorak and Koutnik combined to go 7-for-12 atop the Viking lineup, while Silva finished 3-for-5 with two runs scored and a RBI.

The two teams are back at it again tomorrow, wrapping up College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) play with game one of the doubleheader slated for 1 p.m. at the Holmgren Complex in Chicago, Illinois.  Links to live in-game coverage are available HERE.