Naperville and Chicago, Ill. – Jake Reinhardt is officially the NPU single-season home run king with 15 on the year and the North Park baseball team has earned the number five seed in the CCIW tournament after pulling off a huge 11-4 upset win over the No. 8 ranked North Central Cardinals on Saturday afternoon. NPU dropped their other two games against NCC this weekend with a 10-4 loss on Friday and a 4-2 loss in the second game of Saturday's doubleheader.
Friday Game
Reinhardt didn't waste much time breaking the record as he homered on a solo-shot in the first inning for his 15th of the season, which was enough to break the tie with Steve Zetterlund who has held the NPU single-season home run record since 1987. One inning later, Justin Swanson homered for the first time in his career to put NPU up 2-0, and Jared Cantu knocked in Brandon Davis later in the inning to make it 3-0 Vikings. The No. 8 Cardinals went to work in the next few innings going on a 9-0 run to go up 9-3 and they would eventually go on to win 10-4 over NPU.
Saturday Game One
Seven seniors were honored pregame, and it was senior Justin Woolbright that dominated on offense and defense for the Vikings and led them to the huge upset over top-10 NCC. Woolbright got the start for North Park and pitched a solid eight innings (the longest outing of his career), as well as striking out six and only allowing just one earned run. It was his offensive output that sent the NPU fans into a frenzy, though, when he jacked a huge bomb over the left field fence with the bases loaded for his second grand-slam of the season, giving the Vikings a 4-2 lead in the fourth. Jim Zay echoed Woolbright's bomb later that inning with a homer of his own, this time a two-run shot to send NPU up 6-2. Bobby Bartlett hit his first career home run in the sixth and the rout was on for North Park. Zay added two RBIs on a double in the seventh, and the Vikings finally stopped their scoring after two more runs in the eighth. Brett Brueske came on to pitch the final inning a seal the 11-4 NPU victory over the No. 8 Cards.
Saturday Game Two
The final game of the series was a solid pitching duel between Vikings pitching staff and NCC starter Ryan Behling and his bullpen. NCC put up three in the top of the fourth, but NPU quickly responded with a Zay home run to make it 3-1. Julian Ledezma pitched a solid two innings and after the Cards put up one more in the sixth, Logan Peters came on and put in a final four innings of shutout work on the mound, however the only run NPU could muster was an RBI single from Ranko Stevanovic. NCC didn't allow anything past that and would go on to win 4-2.
What's Next?
North Park (17-21, 12-20 CCIW) have earned the number five seed in the CCIW tournament which means they will open play against number four seed Carroll on Wednesday, May 19th. First pitch will be at North Central's Zimmerman Stadium at 12 p.m.
