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BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - The defending champion Illinois Wesleyan baseball team fell into the losers' bracket of the NCAA Division III Central Regional with a 7-1 setback to Buena Vista on Thursday, May 19 at Horenberger Field.

The Titans (27-17) will now play Ripon at 10 a.m. on Friday, May 20 - the games have been moved ahead two hours to attempt to get contests played prior to anticipated inclement weather on Friday night.

Junior righthander Joe Sweeney (6-5) took the loss as he allowed 11 hits and seven runs (five earned) in eight innings with three strikeouts and a walk.
The winning hurler was Michael Dirkx (4-3), who threw nine innings, scattered seven hits and caused the Titans to leave 10 men on base.

Illinois Wesleyan scored its only run in the third when senior centerfielder Ryan Hopp led off with an infield single and went to second with one out when sophomore first baseman Kevin Callahan was hit by a pitch. Callahan was forced at second and Hopp went to third on a Bobby Czarnowski ground ball and junior leftfielder Mark McDermott doubled to left center to score Hopp.

The Beavers used four sacrifice bunts to advance runners into scoring position and each time resulted in runs. Shortstop Brad Blum had three hits while third baseman Brock Yossi, first baseman Ryan Scheetz and designated hitter Joe Paletta all had two hit games. Yossi contributed two runs batted in
.