2012 CCIW Baseball Tournament
Box Score
North Park opened up its participation in the 2012 CCIW Tournament in exciting fashion, coming away with a 4-3 decision over Augustana College.
The home squad gave starter
Steve Kuligowski a 1-0 lead as
Matt Rice led off the first with a double to left and scored singles by
Zak Worsley and
Ryan Javech. The Vikings added another run as
Joel Bonnett led off the second by ripping the first offering by Augie starter Mike Trotta over the left-field fence for his first career home run.
North Park scratched two more runs to give Kuligowski a 4-0 cushion. Rice opened the fifth by getting hit by a pitch; Worsley's sacrifice bunt was bobbled, and Javech was hit by another pitch to load the bases.
Tony Sanchez drove in a run with a groundout, but a line-drive double play ended the Viking threat. In the eighth,
Joe Belmonte worked a one-out walk. Pinch runner
Sean Witt moved up on a passed ball and raced home when
Kyle Williams reached on an infield single coupled with a throwing error.
Kuligowski cruised through eight innings, allowing just three singles while striking out seven. In the top of the ninth, he struck out leadoff batter Jacob Van Duyne, but strike three was a wild pitch that allowed the runner to reach first. After a fielder's choice for the first out, Kuligowski hit Mike Barker and yielded singles to Grant Stewart and Kurt Schmidt to give Augie its first run. Another fielder's choice groundout scored the second run of the inning, and a second hit batsman loaded the bases again. Coach
Luke Johnson called for
Nick Soldano to come in for relief. After issuing a dramatic RBI walk to pinch hitter Brandon Jasper, Soldano got Kevin Serna to ground out to
Mike Coduto at second to end the game. Kuligowski (11-2) earned the hard-fought victory while Soldano picked up his first save of the season.
North Park (29-11) faces Illinois Wesleyan (27-13) in tomorrow's winner's bracket game at 1.00 PM. The Titans defeated Elmhurst, 9-5, in the first game of the tournament.
