2008 Northern Athletics Conference Baseball Tournament

Box Score

Postgame Comments from winning Coach

ROCKFORD, Ill. (May 9, 2008)– In what started out as a pitcher’s duel, ended as a slug fest as number two seed Rockford defeated four seed Concordia Chicago 10-8 to advance to the Northern Athletics Conference Tournament Championship game on Saturday. The two schools had two hits apiece heading into the sixth inning and ended the game with 25 total hits.

The Rockford College bats came alive in the top of the sixth, scoring eight runs on eight hits to take a commanding 8-1 lead. Chris Brockman led off the inning with a single to left while Tyler Magnuson had two singles in the inning and two RBIs. The Cougars would crawl back into the game scoring two runs in the sixth, seventh and ninth innings and had the tying run at the plate in the bottom of the ninth before the Regents would turn a double play to end the game.

Kevin Patterson (3-4) pitched five and two-thirds innings, allowing three earned runs while Concordia Chicago’s Joe Leyhane (6-1) absorbed his first loss of the season, also pitching five and two-thirds innings. Rockford had six players with multiple hits with Chris Brockman leading the team, going three-for-four at the plate. The Cougars J.D. Rotzoll was three-for-four to lead the team and is now eight-for-nine during the tournament.

With the win Rockford advances to the championship game for the second straight season, improving their season record to 26-17. Concordia Chicago falls to 30-12, failing to pick up their school record 31st win of the season. With the loss the Cougars will play the winner of tonight’s Marian-Benedictine game in an elimination game tomorrow and must now win three games on Saturday to win the tournament.