Judson, St. Ambrose, Saint Xavier, Olivet Nazarene Advance To Third Day of CCAC Baseball Tourney

by | May 3, 2025 | Baseball, College Sports, Headlines, NAIA

Judson, St. Ambrose, Saint Xavier, Olivet Nazarene Advance To Third Day of CCAC Baseball Tourney

JOLIET, Ill. — Three of the top four seeds along with No. 5 Olivet Nazarene University remain in contention for the 2025 Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament title following the completion of the second day of games.

Olivet Nazarene (25-25) will be joined by top-seeded Judson University (29-21), No. 2 St. Ambrose University (26-24) and No. 3 Saint Xavier University (25-25) when the tournament continues on Friday afternoon at Slammers Stadium.  Judson will square off against Saint Xavier in a battle of the two remaining unbeatens in the field at 1 pm, followed by an elimination game between St. Ambrose and Olivet Nazarene at 4 pm.

The winner of the latter game and the loser of the JU-SXU matchup then meet at 7 pm Friday night with that winner advancing to the championship round on Saturday.

Recapping Thursday:

Judson 7, Olivet Nazarene 5
Three ties ensued before Judson went up for good with its two-run seventh inning sparked by Nate Stempowski’s solo home run.  He reached base all five times he batted (two hits, three walks) and scored twice.  Three other Eagles also recorded a pair of hits.  Jack Dupuis led Olivet Nazarene with three hits in five at-bats, including a solo home run to make it a 6-5 game in the eighth inning.  Ryan Risch (7-4) earned the win with his 2 1/3 innings of relief.

Saint Xavier 12, St. Ambrose 1
Saint Xavier sent 15 batters to the plate in the fifth inning with 11 of those players coming around to score in the uprising.  Back-to-back home runs by Noah Dreier and Taylor Steig were the big blows in the frame with Dreier’s being a three-run shot.  Shea Zbrozek also drove in three runs for the Cougars.  SXU starting pitcher Logan McCleery (8-4) was nearly perfect in his five innings of work, allowing just one hit and no walks against five strikeouts.  St. Ambrose, as a team, was limited to just four hits.

Olivet Nazarene 4, Indiana South Bend 3
Olivet Nazarene opened up a 4-1 lead after four innings before Indiana South Bend made things interesting with a two-run seventh inning.  Takumi Kimoto and Aden Aukland each drove in one run for ONU, while collecting three and two hits, respectively.  Jack Ryan had a pair of hits for the Titans.  Joey Boland (4-5) went the first 6 1/3 innings to gain the win.  Matthew Cousino went the rest of the way to pick up his second save of the season.

St. Ambrose 8, Viterbo 2
A four0run fifth inning opened up a tight game for St. Ambrose, who had Jeremy Conforti step up with a two-run single in the third inning and another RBI base hit in the fifth inning.  Joe Turek (5-4) worked into the eighth inning to earn the win.  Xavier Gilmore drove in both runs for Viterbo.

The updated results and schedule follow:

Wednesday, April 30, 2025
Game #1: No. 5 seed Olivet Nazarene 8, No. 4 seed Viterbo 3
Game #2: No. 3 seed Saint Xavier 9, No. 6 seed Indiana South Bend 1

Thursday, May 1, 2025

Game #3: No. 1 seed Judson 7, No. 5 seed Olivet Nazarene 5
Game #4: No. 3 seed Saint Xavier 12, No. 2 seed St. Ambrose 1
Game #5: No. 5 seed Olivet Nazarene 4, No. 6 seed Indiana South Bend 3
Game #6: No. 2 seed St. Ambrose 8, No. 4 seed Viterbo 2

Friday, May 2, 2025
Game #7: No. 1 seed Judson (29-21) vs. No. 3 seed Saint Xavier (29-22) — 1 pm
Game #8: No. 5 seed Olivet Nazarene (25-25) vs. No. 2 seed St. Ambrose (26-24) — 4 pm
Game #9: Loser-Game #7 vs. Winner-Game #8 — 7 pm

Saturday, May 3, 2025
Game #10: Winner-Game #7 vs. Winner-Game #9 — 4 pm (Championship)
Game #11: Winner-Game #10 vs. Loser-Game #10 — 7 pm (If necessary)

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