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Contact: Clark Teuscher, Sports Information Director, 630-637-5302

Box Score

MOLINE, Ill. (May 20, 2010) - A remarkable season came to an end Thursday for the North Central College baseball team, as the Cardinals were eliminated from the NCAA Division III Central Region Championship with an 8-5 loss to the top-seeded Buena Vista University (Iowa) Beavers at Augustana College's Swanson Stadium.

North Central (31-11), which was seeded second in the tournament, closes the campaign with a 20-win improvement over the 2009 season. The Cardinals also recorded the program's first College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin championship and NCAA Tournament appearance in 12 years.

Buena Vista (30-12) opened the scoring in the third inning, rapping out four straight singles to send three runs across the plate. The Cardinals broke up the shutout in the fourth inning, as a Joe Turek walk and singles from Michael Corrigan and Steve Hlavac loaded the bases before a two-run base hit by Andrew Wulbecker.

The Beavers took advantage of two straight walks to score a run on a sacrifice fly in the sixth, then led off the eighth with two consecutive singles to score twice and pull ahead, 6-2. BVU scored two additional runs in the ninth, again benefiting from a pair of walks.

Matt Burke and Peter Romanello reached on errors to start the ninth inning and open the Cardinals' comeback bid, and Nick Robinson walked to load the bases. A groundout by Matt Abraham brought home a run and a two-run single by Corrigan plated two more, but North Central was never able to bring the tying run to the plate.

Hlavac went 3 for 4 in the game, while Turek was 2 for 3 and Corrigan was 2 for 5. Nate Arenson pitched the first seven innings and took the loss (7-2), yelding six earned runs on seven hits.

With 393 runs scored this season, the Cardinals surpass the 1986 team (390) as the highest-scoring team in school history. Robinson, meanwhile, finishes as the Cardinals' all-time leader in single-season at-bats (178).