Baseball Seeded Fifth Ahead of CCIW Tournament

Will play North Central in the first round

5/8/2023 12:00:00 PM

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - After locking down the fifth-seed for the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin Tournament, the Illinois Wesleyan University baseball team will play North Central College, the two-seed, in the first round of the double elimination tournament. IWU will tangle with NCC, who is receiving votes in the latest top-25 poll, at 3:30 p.m., Wednesday, May 10. The tournament is scheduled for Wednesday-Saturday, May 10-13. Augustana College, who claimed the CCIW regular season championship crown, will host the four-day tournament at Swanson Stadium/Brunner Field.

The full, six-team, bracket with game times and other pertinent information, can be found by clicking here.

IWU is looking to win the CCIW Tournament for the first time since 2014, when the Green and White took down North Central by a final score of 8-3 in the championship game to earn the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The 2014 league tournament was also hosted by Augustana.

The winner of Wednesday's game will play the winner of the Millikin University (three-seed) and North Park University (five-seed) game, Thursday at 6 p.m. The loser between IWU and NCC will square off with the loser of the Augustana (one-seed) and Carroll University (six-seed), contest, Thursday at 11 a.m.

Illinois Wesleyan last took to the field Saturday, May 6, with a doubleheader against North Central. IWU took game one by a final score of 1-0, which marked the first time that the Titans defeated an opponent 1-0 since 2015. In Saturday's victory, junior Jacob Cyrus (Glen Ellyn, Ill.-Glenbard South), and freshmen Nathan Waterman (Downers Grove, Ill.-Downers Grove South) and Luke Costello (Downers Grove, Ill.-Downers Grove South) each tossed three innings of work to keep the Cardinals off the board. The trio of pitchers combined to scatter only four hits. In the nightcap, NCC outslugged IWU to take the 12-8 victory.

Wednesday's season series rubber-game will mark the 115th all-time meeting between the two, dating back to 1991. The Titans own the 64-50 all-time season series over the Cardinals. The series advantage can be traced back to an 18-game winning streak from April 2004-April 2009. However, the most recent history has been in favor of NCC as the Cardinals have won nine of the last 10 encounters.

As an offense, Illinois Wesleyan ranks third in conference with a team batting average of .310. North Central tops the list with a .334 batting average while Augustana ranks second (.324).

In the teams 18 CCIW contests this year, sophomore Tristan Figus (Arlington Heights, Ill.-Buffalo Grove) leads IWU with his .426 batting average. Figus ranks third on the team in hits (23). The sophomore sits fourth in the league in batting average (.426) and is tied for eighth in on base percentage (.500).

Junior Louis Perona (Chicago, Ill.-Lane Tech), who is currently riding an 11-game hit streak, owns the second-highest CCIW batting average on the team (.423). Perona leads the team in hits (30), total bases (41), walks (nine), and OPS (1.071). The Chicago, Ill. native ranks third in the conference in hits, is tied for fourth in stolen bases, and is fifth in average.

On the mound, Illinois Wesleyan ranks fifth in the CCIW with a 5.68 team ERA. Augustana (3.55 team ERA) and Millikin (3.77 team ERA) are the only two staff's to post a team ERA under 4.00.

Individually, sophomore Dalen Banks (Springfield, Ill.-Springfield) leads the Titans with 37 conference innings, three wins, and two complete games. Freshman Jake Pullam (Palatine, Ill.-Palatine) tops the staff with his 32 strikeouts.

Additionally, the Green and White check in fifth with a .963 team fielding percentage.

Live stats and live video for the entire tournament will be available. Live stats can be found here, while the live video stream can be accessed here.

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