MSOE takes two from Baseball Saturday

MEQUON, Wis. – The Concordia University Wisconsin Baseball team put itself in a must-win situation for Sunday's NACC doubleheader at Edgewood after dropping a pair of games Saturday against MSOE. The Raiders took game one, 7-2, before completing the sweep with a 5-2 game two win. The Falcons celebrated the careers of 12 seniors in between games as well Saturday.   

THE BASICS
- Final Scores: MSOE 7, CUW 2; MSOE 5, CUW 2
- Location: Kapco Park – Mequon, Wisconsin
- Records: MSOE 22-16, 12-6 NACC; CUW 20-16, 9-9 NACC

HOW IT HAPPENED
- The Raiders got a pair of complete game efforts from a pair of freshmen pitchers Saturday. Brad Demkovich went the distance in the opener with six strikeouts, eight hits allowed, and two earned runs. Caleb Willert followed suit with his own complete game, also allowing two earned while scattering seven hits and punching out three.

- In game one, senior Kyle Washburn (Pleasant Prairie, Wis.) went 3-for-3 with a double to pace the Falcons while senior Justin Barney (Kenosha, Wis.) added three hits of his own and senior Michael Szeszol (Lake Bluff, Ill.) chipped in two base knocks. The Falcons led 2-1 after one but couldn't solve Demkovich the rest of the way.

- Senior Dan Ranieri (Loves Park, Ill.) and junior Eric Paz (Kenosha, Wis.) each tallied two hits in game two with Paz and Szeszol doubling. MSOE built a 5-0 lead in game two before the Falcons chipped away with runs in the sixth and seventh innings.

- The double play ball was the Raiders best friend on Saturday as the Falcons hit into six double plays, including five in the first game.

- CUW used five different pitchers over the two games with senior Eric Dubek (Lockport, Ill.) throwing two scoreless in the opener. Sophomore Alex Prickett (Franklin, Wis.) tossed three impressive scoreless innings in game two as the right-hander struck out three and allowed just two baserunners, one via an error and the other a hit batsmen.  

SENIOR CLASS

- The Falcons senior class consists of 12 players who have helped grow the program over the last four years. The class which is made up of Szeszol, Mario Maldonado, Washburn, Kyle Hilliard, Andrew Gibbons, Scott Plachinski, Barney, Nathan Thyssen, Matt Luft, Drew Underwager, Dubek, and Ranieri, was the first recruiting class under head coach Eddy Morgan and has won 96 games thus far in their CUW careers.

NACC TOURNAMENT HOPES
- CUW will qualify for the 2018 NACC Tournament with a sweep over Edgewood Sunday. The Falcons would tie Rockford for the sixth and final spot and would win a tiebreaker over the Regents. CUW and Rockford split the regular season series, meaning the Falcons sweep over league champion CUC would put them in the tournament.

- If CUW sweeps Edgewood and Benedictine gets swept by MSOE Sunday, the Falcons would climb as high as fifth in the NACC Tournament seeding. In that scenario, Rockford would get the sixth seed and the Falcons the fifth.

- One loss against Edgewood eliminates CUW from NACC Tournament contention.

UP NEXT
- The Falcons doubleheader at Edgewood will start at 1 p.m. Sunday.