Baseball eliminated from NAC Tournament with setback against WLC

MEQUON, Wis. – Wisconsin Lutheran College freshman pitcher Josh Ruppel's strong pitching performance ended the Concordia University Wisconsin Baseball season as the Falcons were eliminated from the Northern Athletics Conference Tournament, falling 5-2 at Kapco Park Friday afternoon.

The Warriors used three unearned runs and CUW committed four errors in the game, helping WLC advance to Friday night. Junior Andrew Mueller (Horicon, Wis.) was strong in his start for the Falcons, throwing his seventh complete game of the season and striking out three batters, while allowing two earned runs.

Unfortunately for Mueller, Ruppel was just as strong as the freshman surrendered just five hits and struck out seven to pick up his fifth win of the season. Wisconsin Lutheran now plays Friday night against the loser of game six between No. 2 Benedictine University and No. 3 Aurora University.

WLC (18-16) struck first as it pushed across two runs in the top of the fourth. Brett Youngbeck drove in Aaron Roesseler for the game's first run, while Doug Martin executed the suicide squeeze play to perfection, scoring Sam Mattheis and putting the Falcons in a 2-0 deficit.

The Falcons evened things up in the bottom of the fifth when sophomore Brandon Seifert (Germantown, Wis.) recorded a two-out, two-RBI single. Juniors Jay Kuczynski (Cedarburg, Wis.) and Taylor Buuck (Hillsboro, Ore.) scored on the Seifert single.

The score would remain 2-2 until the top of the eighth when WLC took the lead back scoring on a Youngbeck RBI-groundout. WLC would add two more runs in the top of the ninth, thanks in large part to two CUW errors, making the final count 5-2.

CUW ends its season with a 15-27 record, which included a 12-10 mark in the NAC regular season. The NAC Tournament appearance was the third in the past four years for CUW.