The spark
After starting the season just 3-11, the NCC men’s baseball team opened up a five-game win streak across a one-week span. Taking into account those CCIW wins, we start up in Kenosha, detailing NCC’s win over Carthage (12-7) by a score of 11-5. This notched the first conference win of the season for the Cardinals before returning home and defeating Elmhurst (6-13) by a score of 2-1 on Senior Day at Zimmerman Stadium with a walk off single by Henry Saul, ’27. The Cardinals followed up both conference wins with a win today over Augustana (9-8) as well, winning the game 4-3 and improving to 3-0 in CCIW play as well as 8-11 overall, capping off yet another walk off win for NCC, when Cards’ CF Caleb Coberley, ’27 was hit by pitch with the bases loaded.
Breaking down the spark
Beginning with the 21-8 win over Illinois Tech (7-9) on the 23rd of March, we saw the Cardinals drop an unreal 20 run fifth inning outing in the win over the Scarlet Hawks on 18 hits and 18 RBI’s in the game’s entirety.
Fast forward to the 25th and yet again the Cardinals find themselves down early before stringing together five runs in the third, sparking two more in each of the following two innings to come. This accounted for a 11-5 road CCIW victory for both the Cards’ and Cards’ ace Brian Duvall, ’27, this past Tuesday.
Two runs early in the second against the Maroons of University of Chicago would be enough to slay that dragon. Saul’s walk off single in a 2-1 Senior Day led the Cards to another big victory over Elmhurst. Additionally, Coberley’s walk off over Augustana were enough to propel the Cards to another two victories.
Mid-season “streaky-ness”
The Cards’ built a lot of confidence after putting that win streak together, and brought their season back to life. North Central sophomore Justin Lang, ’27, touched on the bounce-back the baseball team has made.
“The locker room is more upbeat, you can definitely feel the shift…Baseball is such a streaky sport so when the guys are hitting and the team is winning, its definitely a good feeling,” said Lang.
Lang continued by talking about the walk-off wins and team success.
“The hype is building up, especially with conference wins over rivals… those are always the best,” said Lang.
The Cards have gone 9-5 since the walk off winner vs Augie. Accounting to their 8-5 conference record with the CCIW Championships on the horizon.
What’s next?
Obviously there is something brewing here in the clubhouse for this ball club. That is a good feeling for any team, but especially this one. This team thrives on that motivation and that momentum, as Lang stated above. It’ll definitely be interesting to see this group thrive and ‘seventh inning stretch’ their way to the finish line of their regular season. But until then, the NCC men’s baseball team finishes the regular season slate with seven conference games. Three vs Carroll, one vs Carthage and three vs North Park before headed into the CCIW Tournament. They currently sit third only behind Illinois Wesleyan (12-4), and Carthage (10-3).
