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

Box Score

Mar. 14, 2021 – Backed by yet another strong starting pitching performance from Luke Lamm, the North Central College baseball team captured a tightly-contested 1-0 win on Wednesday over College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) rival North Park University.

Lamm was magnificent on the mound once again, going 8 1/3 innings while allowing just four hits, all singles, with seven strikeouts and a pair of walks. Lamm improves to 3-0 on the season and has yet to allow a run over 21 1/3 innings this season.

Offensively, both teams struggled to push across a run until the bottom of the seventh when Rob Marinec lined a one-out base hit to right and Dom Listi reached on an error by the Viking pitcher to put two on with one away.

Colin Weilbacher followed with a RBI-single to right, scoring Marinec while giving North Central a 1-0 lead and what proved to be the lone run of the ballgame.

The only real North Park scoring threat on the afternoon came in the top of the third, but Lamm struck out Ranko Stevanovic to end the inning and strand runners on second and third.  Lamm then proceeded to allow just two batters to reach the rest of the contest.

Nicholas Rietz came on with one out and one on in the bottom of the ninth and struck out the only two batters faced, earning his first save of the season.

Marinec finished 1-for-3 from the plate but reached base four times, walking twice and reaching on an error while scoring the lone run.  Luke Lehnen and Michael Stoltz each finished 2-for-4 from the dish, while Lehnen also added a sacrifice bunt and stolen base.

Off from the CCIW schedule this weekend, the Cardinals host non-conference opponent DePauw University (Indiana) on Saturday, Mar. 27 with first-pitch at Zimmerman Stadium at 1 p.m.