ELGIN, Ill. – The fourth-seeded Purdue University Northwest baseball team ran into a hot-hitting St. Xavier squad in a 13-2 loss in the opening round of the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournament Friday in Elgin, Ill.
The Pride (29-18) fall to the loser’s bracket of the double-elimination tournament with the loss, and will face the loser of eight-seed Indiana South Bend (22-24) and top-seeded Judson (27-16) at 4:30 p.m. Saturday at Judson’s Hoffer Field.
IUSB and Judson are set to play tonight at 7:30 p.m. CT.
Friday, the game saw two and half scoreless innings before St. Xavier (26-27) plated two in the bottom of the third on a Ryan Pellack two-run shot over the left-field fence.
The Pride would cut into that lead with a  run in the fourth on an Austin Kordik (West Chicago, Ill./Community) RBI-single with the bases loaded to make it 2-1 SXU. Avondre Harris (Mishawaka, Ind./Mishawaka), Jake Lindeman (Crown Point, Ind./Crown Point) and Hunter Thorn (Portage, Ind./Portage) started off the inning with singles to set up Kordik’s RBI.
But it was the fifth inning that saw the Cougars catch fire, as SXU plated six runs to blow the game open and take a 8-1 lead. PNW would muster one more run in the sixth on a Mike Mikulich (Hebron, Ind./Hebron) RBI single, before the Cougars added runs in the sixth and seventh to come away with a  mercy-rule victory.
PNW totaled seven hits to 15 for SXU, led by two from Kordik (2-for-3, RBI, run). Harris, Lindeman, Thorn, Luke Schmidt (Crystal Lake, Ill./Crystal Lake South), and Mikulich added singles.
Starter Matt Sandoval (Highland, Ind./Bishop Noll) took the loss on the hill, allowing nine hits and striking out two in 4 and 1/3 innings.
LIVE LOOK
Live stats and video is available for every game of the CCAC Tournament provided by Judson here:
https://portal.stretchinternet.com/ccac/
TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
Friday, May 5, 2017
Game #1: No. 5 seed Saint Xavier 13, No. 4 seed Purdue Northwest 2
Game #2: No. 6 seed Robert Morris Ill. (26-25) vs. No. 3 seed St. Ambrose (24-23) — 1:30 pm
Game #3: No. 7 seed St. Francis (30-24) vs. No. 2 seed Olivet Nazarene (31-17) — 4:30 pm
Game #4: No. 8 seed Indiana South Bend (22-24) vs. No. 1 seed Judson (37-16) — 7:30 pm
Saturday, May 6, 2017
Game #5: Winner-Game #2 vs. Winner-Game #3 — 10:30 am
Game #6: Winner-Game #1 vs. Winner-Game #4 — 1:30 pm
Game #7: Loser-Game #1 vs. Loser-Game #4 — 4:30 pm
Game #8: Loser-Game #2 vs. Loser-Game #3 — 7:30 pm
Monday, May 8, 2017
Game #9: Winner-Game #5 vs. Winner-Game #6 — 10:30 am
Game #10: Loser-Game #5 vs. Winner-Game #7 — 1:30 pm
Game #11: Loser-Game #6 vs. Winner-Game #8 — 4:30 pm
Game #12: Winner-Game #10 vs. Winner-Game #11 — 7:30 pm
Tuesday, May 9, 2017
Game #13: Loser-Game #9 vs. Winner-Game #12 — 4:30 pm
Game #14: Winner-Game #9 vs. Winner-Game #13 — 7:30 pm (Championship)
