Contact: Nicholas Osterloo, Assistant Sports Information Director, 630-637-5324
CAROL STREAM, Ill. (Mar. 19, 2023) - Coming back to the Chicagoland area after a spring break trip to Florida, the North Central College baseball team used a stellar outing from starting pitcher
Ryan Behling to down the Illinois Institute of Technology, 6-2 on a chilly and sunny Sunday afternoon.
Behling worked around a double and a walk in the top of the first inning to keep the Scarlet Hawks off of the scoreboard. In the bottom half of the inning, Rob Marinec walked followed by a perfectly executed hit and run from Justin Rios as a single sent Marinec to third. Michael Davis delivered a sacrifice fly to plate Marinec before Rios scored on a wild pitch, giving North Central a 2-0 lead.
In the second, Trey Roach was hit by a pitch and moved to second base on a fielder's choice. He came around to score on an Illinois Tech error to extend the Cardinals' advantage to 3-0.
No Scarlet Hawk reached second base until the sixth inning with Behling continuing his dominance throughout the game. CJ Jensik relieved Behling in the eighth inning. Illinois Tech greeted the new pitcher with a two-run home run to bring themselves in within one run. Cardinals' closer Nolan Shannon entered the game looking for a five-out save and held the Scarlet Hawks to just two runs.
Davis belted a leadoff triple to open the bottom half of the eighth inning. After Luke Lehnen walked, Scumaci hit an RBI single to left field to tack on an insurance run for North Central. Lehnen and Scumaci came around to score on a Dave Fitzpatrick single and Scarlet Hawks error to increase the Cardinals' lead to four, 6-2.
Shannon posted a three-up, three-down ninth with two strikeouts as he picked up his second save of the season. In his 8.2 innings pitched this year, Shannon has struck out 11 while not allowing a hit.
Davis and Scumaci each tallied two hits, one run, and one RBI while Rios and Lehnen recorded a hit and a run. Behling finished with five strikeouts and no runs over his seven innings of work to earn his second win of the season.
North Central completes the season series with Illinois Tech on Tuesday afternoon. The first pitch against the Scarlet Hawks is set for 3 pm at Ed Glancy Field.
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