JU, SAU, SXU, ONU Advance To Third Day of 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 on Thursday.
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 left 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 four-run 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)