(Ann Arbor, MI) - The Concordia Cardinals Baseball team continues play at the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference tournament today as they will take on Warriors from Indiana Tech. The Cardinals advanced to the second round following a dominating 11-0 win over the seventh-seeded Cleary University on Wednesday.
An eight-run third innings for CUAA gave the Cardinals what they needed to start the tournament off on the right foot. Concordia was able to piece together several hits to make it a 5-0 game before Alex Piotowski added three more on a home run. The fifth and sixth innings had the Cardinals add on the final three runs with the sixth inning seeing Derek Hebner homering to left field. Trey Acker and Ryan VanSlambrouck combined for the shutout, allowing six hits.
The new tournament format features a double-elimination bracket. All eight teams will play a game on Wednesday and make it to the next day. On Thursday, four teams will be eliminated with two more on Friday. Friday will have the final consolation game with the two remaining teams moving on to the Championship game on Saturday.
Game Information
#2 Concordia vs #3 Indiana Tech
Cornerstone University | Grand Rapids, MI
May 1, 2025 | 2 PM | Hosted by Aquinas and Cornerstone
About the Warriors
The Warriors entered the tournament as the third seed after recording a 20-8 WHAC record. They are currently sitting with a 32-18 record. The Warriors are led by Head Coach Kip McWilliams who is in his 18th season and has a 616-374-2.
A trio of Warriors were named to the WHAC First Team All-Conference as Grant Besser, Jordan Malott, and Ben Morrison were honored, while Brycen Hannah, Noah Redmon, and Colton Leatherman were named to the Second Team.
Morrison, Malott, and Hannah all recorded batting averages above 0.360 with Morrison leading the way at 0.378. Malott led the team in home runs with 11, while Ferguson tallied 10. Malott would also lead the team in RBI's with 60.
Grant Besser, Leatherman, and Redmon all have five wins on the season, with Leatherman leading the pack with a 1.76 ERA over 41 innings. Besser has 66 strikeouts on the year to lead the team as Redmon is second with 64.
About the Cardinals
Concordia are 42-9 on the season record overall and 22-6 WHAC record, good enough to take the second seed in the WHAC tournament. Head Coach Zach Johnston is now in his 11th season with the program and has a 393-195 record overall.
Jake Kuhlman earned First Team All-WHAC accolades after hitting for a 0.404 average on the season along with 25 extra base hits and 49 steals. Josh Burke manned third base for the Cardinals on his way to Second Team honors with a conference leading 19 home runs and 68 RBI. Gus Simon also received Second Team accolades in the outfield while earning a Gold Glove alongside Catcher Tyler Wressel, First Baseman Derek Hebner, and Second Baseman Jake Kuhlman.
The Cardinals are led on the mound by All-WHAC Second Teamer Trey Acker. Acker pitched 59.2 innings on his way to a 8-1 record with a WHIP of just 1.29. Bryon Mane, Logan Morris, Drew Murphy, and Evan Jasiak all made 7 or more starts for Concordia, while Blake Weaver and Kenneth (Dave) Rozmys played big roles out of the bullpen with 6 and 2 saves respectively.
WHAC First Round Recap
Top-seeded Northwestern Ohio edged out #8 Siena Heights 7-6 in 11 innings yesterday. The two teams battled back and forth with Siena leading 6-5 going into the bottom of the 9th before the Racers tied up the game. Neither of the two teams were able to score in the 10th and then UNOH was able to push across the winning run in the 11th for the walk-off win.
The second game hosted at the Meijer Sports complex was between #4 Aquinas and #5 Madonna. Another back and forth game saw a 4-4 tie through five innings before Madonna put up a run in the sixth and a pair in the eighth, while Aquinas put up two in the seventh and then the final two runs in the bottom of the 9th to give the Saints a walk-off win.
The third and final game of the first round was between #6 Lawrence Tech and #3 Indiana Tech. After both teams put runs up in the first inning, IIT would score in the 4th to take a slim 2-1 lead. Neither team could get the offense going as the next run came in the 9th when Lawrence Tech tied up the game. Both teams put up a run in the 10th, before IIT was able to squeeze out another run in the 11th for the third walk-off victory of the day in the tournament.
Previous Matchup
The Cardinals and Warriors are very familiar with each other, having played four times within the last 8 days. The Cardinals would take the four-game series, 3-1, winning the final three games.
Game 1 saw Grant Besser shut down the Cardinal offense with a complete game shutout, with eight strikeouts to win 4-0. Gus Simon recorded a pair of doubles in the game for the Cardinals.
Game 2 had the Cardinals bats come alive right away putting up one run in the first before scoring five in the second. The Warriors would mount a mini comeback with a three run fourth inning, but the Cardinals responded in the fifth with another five run inning and then put up four more insurance runs in the eighth to win 15-7. Jake Kuhlman, Derek Hebner, and Tyler Wressel each homered in the game for CUAA.
Games 3 and 4 saw the Cardinals travel to Fort Wayne for a doubleheader. The Cardinals came away with a 6-2 and 7-1 victory in the pair of games. Derek Hebner, Gus Simon, Josh Burke, and Tyler Wressel homered in those games as well.
Team Stat Comparison
|
Concordia |
Stats |
Indiana Tech |
|
51 |
Games |
50 |
|
1506 |
At Bats |
1537 |
|
478 |
Runs |
371 |
|
493 |
Hits |
474 |
|
100 |
Doubles |
91 |
|
18 |
Triples |
6 |
|
58 |
Home Runs |
47 |
|
414 |
Runs Batted In |
326 |
|
176 |
Extra Base Hits |
144 |
|
803 |
Total Bases |
718 |
|
265 |
Walks |
236 |
|
98 |
Hit by pitch |
93 |
|
257 |
Strikeouts |
329 |
|
28 |
Sacrifice Flies |
19 |
|
32 |
Sacrifice Hits |
33 |
|
22 |
Hit into double play |
34 |
|
174 |
Stolen Bases |
65 |
|
18 |
Caught Stealing |
7 |
|
0.327 |
Batting Average |
0.308 |
|
0.451 |
On Base Percentage |
0.426 |
|
0.533 |
Slugging Percentage |
0.467 |
|
3.75 |
Earned Run Average |
5.43 |
|
1.37 |
WHIP |
1.51 |
|
7 |
Shutouts |
3 |
|
1414 |
At Bats Against |
1442 |
|
0.257 |
Batting Average Against |
0.270 |
WHAC Tournament
April 30, May 1-3, 2025
8 Teams - Games Played at Meijer Sports Complex and Cornerstone University
Grand Rapids, Mich.
Wednesday, April 30
Meijer Sports Complex
Game 1 2:00pm #1 UNOH defeats #8 Siena Heights - 7-6 - 11 Innings
Game 2 6:00pm #4 Aquinas defeats #5 Madonna - 8-7
Cornerstone University
Game 3 2:00pm #2 Concordia defeats #7 Cleary - 11-0 - 7 Innings
Game 4 6:00pm #3 Indiana Tech defeats #6 Lawrence Tech - 4-3 - 11 Innings
Thursday, May 1
Gm5 Siena Heights vs. Madonna - 1 p.m. - Meijer Sports Complex
Gm6 Cleary vs. Lawrence Tech - 1 p.m. - Cornerstone Univ.
Gm7 UNOH vs. Aquinas - 4 p.m. - Meijer Sports Complex
Gm8 Concordia vs. Indiana Tech - 4 p.m. - Cornerstone Univ.
Gm9 L8 vs. W5 - TBD - Cornerstone Univ.
Gm10 L7 vs. W6 - TBD - Meijer Sports Complex
Friday, May 2
Meijer Sports Complex
Gm11 W9 vs.W10 - 10 a.m.
Gm12 W7 vs. W8 - 2 p.m.
Gm13 L12 vs. W11 6 p.m.
Saturday, May 3
Meijer Sports Complex
Gm14 W12 vs. W13 - 2 p.m.
Gm15 If necessary - 6 p.m.
