BB: CCIW: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

North Park swept the series with Millikin by winning today at Holmgren, 6-2. It should've been a much bigger margin than that, but the Vikings found themselves strangely unable to do anything positive with the bases loaded. On three different occasions in the middle of the game the Vikings had the bags full with only one out -- and in all three instances, they came up empty. That made the game quite a bit more tense than should've been the case, but NPU pitching largely held the Big Blue at bay, as Alex Vannucci ran his record to 4-0 on the year and Matt Peterson picked up his third save.

Illinois Wesleyan @ Augustana was postponed (and has yet to be rescheduled). This afternoon's Carthage @ Chicago doubleheader has no live stats available.

[Mr. Ypsi]

According to the IWU website, the IWU @ Augie game will be made up tomorrow (didn't specify the time).

EDIT:  Either they have updated or I finally looked the right place - the game will start at 3:30.  Both the Augie and IWU websites have links to livestats.

[BigPoppa]

Carthage has quietly crept back into the CCIW picture. They have the most favorable schedule the rest of the way as they have played most of the teams at the top of the standings already.

[BigPoppa]

Redmen have won 7 of their last 9 games. Hopefully, they can keep this trend going forward. Taking two of three from both Wheaton and NPU is a positive sign that things are heading in the right direction.

I expected IWU to run away from the league so being swept by the Titans did not shock me.

By the way... how BIG is the Carthage loss to Millikin looming right now? Could be the difference between the playoffs and staying home.

[TitanPride]

IWU @ Augie postponed until Tuesday at 3:30 PM.

[AndOne]

Thanks to our never ending winter and yesterday's snow, today's NCC game @ down the street neighbor Benedictine, has already been postponed. No makeup date set yet.

[Gregory Sager]

Same deal with North Park's game this afternoon @ crosstown foe Chicago. No makeup date as yet for that game.

NPU has re-scheduled a previously postponed game against Concordia IL for Sunday, May 4. That game will be played in River Forest.

[Gregory Sager]

Augie defeated Wesleyan today, 11-8, in the QC. Doesn't sound like it was a well-played game; each team made four errors, which brought the number of errors for the series to 15.

[Mr. Ypsi]

A (wild but sloppy) game in Moline, with Augie prevailing 11-8.  Each team had 4 errors.

Augie went up 4-0 in the bottom of the first.  IWU clawed back and went up 5-4 in the top of the sixth.  But Augie got 4 in the bottom of the sixth, and 3 more in the 7th.  IWU scored 3 in the 8th to make it a ballgame, but couldn't get any in the 9th.

[Gregory Sager]

The CCIW standings are now thus:

Illinois Wesleyan	10-2
North Park	9-3
Augustana	8-4
North Central	6-6
Carthage	6-6
Wheaton	5-7
Elmhurst	3-9
Millikin	1-11

The remaining series (number of home games per series):

4/18 thru 4/19
Augustana (2) vs. North Park (1)
Carthage (1) vs. Elmhurst (2)
Illinois Wesleyan (1) vs. North Central (2)
Millikin (0) vs. Wheaton (3)

4/25 thru 4/27
Augustana (0) vs. Carthage (3)
Elmhurst (0) vs. Millikin (3)
Illinois Wesleyan (3) vs. North Park (0)
North Central (2) vs. Wheaton (1)

5/2 thru 5/3
Augustana (3) vs. Millikin (0)
Carthage (2) vs. North Central (1)
Elmhurst (1) vs. Illinois Wesleyan (2)
North Park (1) vs. Wheaton (2)

[Mr. Ypsi]

It's Bobby Czarnowski's Player of the Year award to lose at this point.

He's first in BA (.458), RBIs (23), HRs (5) = Triple Crown, and total bases (42).  He's also second in runs scored (17), and tied for second in hits (22).

Pitcher of the Year is a tight race between Trey Martin (Wheaton) and (Titan) Jeff Johnson (with defending titlist Titan John Munyon not far behind).  Trey has a 2-1 record, 0.75 ERA, .167 Batting average against, and 24 SOs in 24 innings.  Jeff has a 3-0 record, 1.38 ERA, .170 batting average against, and 21 SOs in 26 innings.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Benedictine is a very nice liqueur.  Turns out, it is also not a bad baseball team - beating the Titans 6-2 tonight.  Both Titan runs came in the 9th, and they were just a Derek Idstein hit or walk away from bringing up Bobby Czarnowski as the tying run.  Alas, it was not to be, as Derek went 0-5.

Pool C may be out of reach for the Titans - win that tourney!

[Gregory Sager]

NPU leads Augie, 3-1, in the 7th in the series opener out in the QC.

Wheaton beat Millikin in the first game of today's DH at Pfund, 7-1. The two teams are deadlocked at 2 in the 4th in Game Two.

Elmhurst beat Carthage, 7-2, in the opener of today's DH at Butterfield. The Bluejays currently lead the Red Men in the 4th in Game Two, 5-1.

[Gregory Sager]

Elmhurst completes the doubleheader sweep with a 7-1 win over Carthage.

[Gregory Sager]

NPU wins the first game in Moline, 7-4. The North Park bullpen hiccuped away Nick Soldano's win after the Vikings' ace had gone six strong innings, but the Park recovered and added three more runs to garner the win. Augie's defense was horrific, as the hosts committed five errors that led to four unearned North Park runs. It helped to offset a bad day on the basepaths for NPU, whose typically aggressive baserunning turned out to be a negative in this game.

Tommy Endres was the Game One hero for North Park, as the junior leftfielder went 4-5 with 3 RBI.