2012 CCIW Baseball Tournament
Box Score

A fifth-inning grand slam by Tony Sanchez propelled North Park to its first trip to the CCIW Tournament championship game since 1990 as the Vikings topped Illinois Wesleyan, 11-4, on Friday afternoon at the Holmgren Athletic Conference.  North Park overcame deficits of 2-0 and 4-2 as Nick Soldano hurled a complete game for his ninth win of the season.

The Titans got on the board early against Soldano, scoring once in the first on a single, a sacrifice bunt, a groundout, and another base hit, then widened their lead in the third on a triple and a sacrifice fly.  It took the Vikings offense three innings before recording their first hits, singles by Mike Coduto and Eric Sousanes.  After Matt Rice sacrificed them up a base, Zak Worsley drew a walk.  A wild pitch scored Coduto, and after Sanchez walked to load the bases again, Joe Belmonte as hit by a pitch to tie the game.

Illinois Wesleyan's Josh Levy hit a solo home run in the fourth and Mark McDermott followed suit with another solo round-tripper in the fifth for a 4-2 Titan lead.  After that, the Viking batters took charge: Rice led off the bottom of the fifth with a single, Worsley walked, and Ryan Javech singled to load the bases, which set the stage for Sanchez's dramatic grand slam to the right field corner on a 1-2 pitch. 

Nursing a 6-4 advantage, Soldano escaped from a sixth inning jam -- runners at the corners with no outs -- thanks to a strikeout and an inning-ending double play.  His efforts were rewarded with some insurance runs in the seventh and a 9-4 lead: Javech led off with a double, Sanchez walked, and Kyle Williams launched a three-run homer to right center that broke a window in the press box. 

The Titans continued to battle, putting runners on second and third with one out in the eighth, but Soldano fanned one batter and induced a fly ball to the next to keep the score at 9-4.  The Vikings would wrap up their scoring in the last of the eighth as Belmonte's bloop single to the right field line scored Rice and Javech.  Soldano gave up a single and his only walk of the game in the ninth, but a popup and a grounder to Coduto kept the Vikings in the winner's bracket.

With the victory, North Park recorded its 30th win of the season for the second year in a row, a first for the Viking baseball program.  More importantly, the Vikings face Wesleyan in the championship game Saturday at noon, needing only one more win to secure the automatic qualifier for the NCAA regional tournament, which starts next week.