Contact: Nicholas Osterloo, Assistant Sports Information Director, 630-637-5324
NAPERVILLE, Ill. (May 14, 2022) - Playing in their fifth straight College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin Tournament Title Game, the North Central College baseball team fell to Augustana College in a 14-inning thriller, 10-9 at Zimmerman Stadium on Saturday.
Starter Jaedin Kotecki kept the Vikings hitless through the first two innings of play. Trey Roach and Jared Wojcik each reached base to lead off the bottom of the second. Michael Davis hit an RBI double to score Roach before Paul Beverly scored from third on a wild pitch. Giving the Cardinals a 3-0 lead was Jack Oberli who drove in Davis on a single to left field.
The Vikings added a run in the third inning, despite not recording a hit. In the bottom half of the fourth, a Dom Listi triple scored both Joe Hamilton and Oberli to put North Central ahead, 6-1.
Augustana tacked on another run in the fifth before piling on five runs in the sixth inning on five hits to take a 7-6 lead.
With two outs in the bottom of the sixth, Wojick launched a home run on the first pitch he saw to knot the game at seven apiece. The Vikings answered with a long ball of their own as Kyle Campbell homered to regive Augustana the lead, 8-7.
Neither team pushed a run across until the ninth when Matt Ozanic scored Barker to push the Vikings' lead to two, 9-7.
Heading into the bottom of the ninth down two, Oberli drew a leadoff walk before Rob Marinec recorded a pinch hit single. Oberli came around to score on a Luke Lehnen single to the left side and keep the Cardinals' hopes alive. With runners on first and third, Rios hit a fielder's choice as the Vikings were unable to complete the double play, allowing John Michael Scumaci, who pinch ran for Marinec, to score and send the game into extra innings.
With runners the bases loaded and only one out, Ryan Behling worked out of the jam to keep the game tied at 9-9. The Cardinals loaded the bases in the bottom of the 11th but were also unable to capitalize as neither team scored until the 14th inning.
Cole Green led off the top of the 14th inning with a home run over the left field fence, giving Augustana a 10-9 advantage. North Central could not take advantage of a leadoff single from Rios as the Vikings won 1-9 to win the CCIW Tournament.
Luke Lamm suffered his fourth loss of the season as Josh Wintroub picked up the win for Augustana. Nine different Cardinals recorded a hit with Listi and Wojcik tallying three. Matt Ambrose and Behling each allowed just one run in their combined 7.2 innings pitched.
Augustana will receive the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III postseason, while North Central awaits its fate in next week's regional action, as the postseason selections will be announced at NCAA.com on Monday at 12 PM (ET).
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