Ryan Thorsen and Chris Senn Earn Illinois NACC Baseball Players of the Week Honors

Illinois Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference baseball players of the week

honors go to Rockford College infielder Chris Senn and Concordia University Chicago pitcher Ryan Thorsen for the week ending March 16th.

Concordia senior Ryan Thorsen, Lake Villa, Illinois, earned pitcher of the week honors throwing eight scoreless innings against Rose-Hulman last week.  Thorsen struck out nine and gave up five hits over eight innings.

Rockford's Chris Senn, Victorville, CA, earned player of the week honors by hitting .471 with five doubles, a homer and 10 rbi's last week. 

Three Division III Illinois Baseball Teams Ranked in Pre-Season Poll

Three Division III Illinois baseball teams are ranked in the Pre-Season poll released by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper.

The highest ranked team on the poll is Concordia University Chicago, ranked #13.  Concordia is also ranked #16 on the Pre-Season Poll released by D3Baseball.com.  Concordia finished last season at 39-7.




Augustana is also on both polls coming in at #22 on Collegiate Baseball Newspaper and #21 on D3Baseball.com.  Augustana finished at 34-11 in 2013.


Illinois Wesleyan is the final Illinois D3 baseball team on the Pre-season Polls coming in at #26 on the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper poll.  Illinois Wesleyan finished 2013 with a record of 33-14.

Northern Athletics Conference 2013 Baseball Preview

Aurora University baseball is picked to finish 1st in the 2013 preseason coaches poll in the Northern Athletic Conference.  The Spartans won last years NAC conference title and the last three Northern Athletic Conference tournaments.

Returning for Aurora is D3Baseball.com's preseason All-American pitcher Drew Gay who went 8-0 with a 1.68 ERA last season.  Aurora also returns pitchers Eric Palmer 8-0, 2.54 ERA, Brad Warnecke 8-0, 1.19 ERA, DH Cory Walden .352  , 57 RBI's, and catcher Ryan McMahon, .322, 17 RBI's.

Concordia, IL returns All-American third baseman Anthony Even who hit .400 with 38 RBI's and 22 doubles last season.

Benedictine has NAC Freshman All-Star Tim Hendricks coming back.  Tim hit .269 with 23 RBI's and scored 20 runs last season for the Eagles.

Rockford's top returning pitcher is Kaleb Rich, who went 3-4 with a 4.82 ERA last year.

Dominican University only returns 10 letter winners from their 2012 squad right fielder Adam Quinn leads the way hitting .267 with 22 rbi's last season.

NCAA Division III Baseball All-Americans from Illinois

D3Baseball.com announced the 2012 NCAA Division III All-American baseball team yesterday and below are the players from Illinois.

First Team All-American
3B Kevin Callahan, Illinois Wesleyan.  The junior infielder hit .355 with 17 doubles, 11 home runs and drove in 54.  Kevin is from Brother Rice HS and lives in Chicago, Illinois.

Second Team All-American
3B Anthony Even from Concordia.  Even hit .432 with 22 doubles, 2 triples, 2 homers and 38 rbi's.  Anthony is from West Leyden HS and lives in Franklin Park, Illinois.

Pitcher Drew Gay from Aurora University.  Drew went 8-0 with a 1.63 ERA in 77 1/3rd innings, struck out 67 and walked 16 for the Spartans.  Drew is from Marquette HS and lives in Marseilles, Illinois.

Third Team All-American
3B Tim Mackey, Aurora, Tim hit .391 with 5 homers, 19 doubles, 2 triples and drove in 32.  Tim is from East Leyden HS and lives in Rosemont, Illinois

Utility player Drew Golz from Wheaton College, Drew hit .404 with 4 homers, 12 doubles and on the mound Golz went 8-2 with a 2.52 ERA.  Drew attended Oak Park-River Forest HS and lives in River Forest, Illinois.

Honorable Mention
Pitcher Nick Soldano from North Park, Nick went 9-2 with a 3.12 ERA in 101 innings.  Nick is from Zion-Benton HS and lives in Lake Zurich, Illinois.

Aurora University Baseball Picked to Win the NAC for 2012

Aurora University baseball is picked to win the 2012 Northern Athletics Conference by D3Baseball.com.

Returning for Aurora are two D3Baseball.com Third Team All-Americans, senior outfielder Josh Davidson and DH Mike Foley.  Also returning for the Spartans is NAC Co-Pitcher of the Year Drew Gay.

Concordia Illinois looks to be as good as Aurora in 2012 with the NAC Position Player of the Year catcher Nick Skala.  Skala was drafted in the 37th round by the Orioles but returned to school.  Also returning are All-American outfielder Cam Stevens and outfielder Dan Eichholzer.

Illinois Benedictine returns seven position players and five pitchers for 2012.  Head baseball coach John Ostrowski is looking for his 900th win this season.  Coach Ostrowski begins his 39th season at Benedictine.

Rockford returns two All-Conference players with infielder Jimmy Dercks and outfielder/infielder Ryne Billesbach.

Concordia, North Park Ranked in Latest Division III Baseball Polls

In the latest Division III national baseball polls both Concordia University and North Park University earn spots on the poll for Illinois teams.  Augustana, who was ranked 13th has dropped off of the national poll as of April 25th.

Concordia (23-5) is ranked at #20

North Park (24-7) is ranked at #25

Illinois Wesleyan and Augustana did receive votes but did not make the rankings this week.

Concordia Baseball Leads Northern Athletics Conference Standings

Concordia University of Chicago Illinois Baseball stands in first place in the Northern Athletics Conference as of April 22nd.  Concordia (20-4 overall) is also moving up on the ABCA ranking board to #16.

Concordia was on an eleven game winning streak before yesterday's loss to the University of Wisconsin/Whitewater and holds a two game lead over Aurora University.  Concordia and Aurora will battle for first place on April 25th in Aurora.

Current Standings in the Northern Athletics Conference:
Concordia Chicago 10-0
Aurora 8-2
Rockford 7-3
Marian 6-4
Concordia Wisconsin 5-4
Edgewood 6-6
Benedictine 5-5
Wisconsin Lutheran 5-5
Dominican 4-7
MSOE 4-8
Lakeland 3-9
Maranatha 0-10

Aurora University Baseball Picked as 2011 Favorite in the NAC

The Aurora University Baseball team received 7 of 11 first place votes as the 2011 preseason favorite in the Northern Athletics Conference.

Aurora returns three all-conference honorable mention players from last season, finished second in conference (16-6 in the NAC, 27-16 overall), won the conference tournament and advanced to the D3 Championship Tournament last season.

Rockford, last season's NAC co-champion, was picked to finish second in the 2011 preseason poll.

2011 NAC Coaches Preseason Poll:

1. Aurora University
2. Rockford College
3. Edgewood
4. Concordia Chicago & Concordia Wisconsin
6. Benedictine
7. Lakeland
8. Marian
9. Dominician
10. MSOE & Wisconsin Lutheran
12. Maranatha

Adam Smith Takes Over as Head Baseball Coach at Concordia

Interim head coach Adam Smith has been promoted to full-time head baseball coach at Concordia University in Chicago.

Over the past two seasons Smith served as a full-time assistant and hitting coach for the Cougars.

Concordia also announced that Brandon Townsend as the new full-time assistant coach.  Townsend will work with the Cougars' pitching staff and also be involved with recruiting.

Rockford Baseball Picked to Win 2010 Northern Athletics Conference

Baseball in Illinois News

Based on the pre-season coaches poll the Rockford Regents Baseball team has been picked to win the Northern Athletics Conference for 2010.  Rockford received 131 overall votes with Aurora University and Concordia University Chicago finishing with 124 total votes.

The 2010 Northern Athletics Conference baseball tournament will be held at Road Ranger Stadium in Rockford Illinois and will include the top four teams in the conference.

2010 Northern Athletics Conference Preview

From Baseball in Illinois News
courtesy of D3baseball

Concordia (Ill.) was the automatic qualifier in the Northern AC, the conference's first Pool A bid after going through the NCAA waiting process. The Cougars (33-15, 18-4 Northern AC in 2009) went 0-2 against Wooster and Heidelberg, both top-10 teams heading into regionals. If there's to be a repeat, Concordia (Ill.) will have to do it without shortstop Jack Walker, who's now in the Nationals organization, and Phil Seris. Those two combined for 30 home runs, 96 runs batted in and 231 total bases in 2009.


The wheels have left Rockford, but the Regents will be just fine. Rockford (27-14, 17-5) loses outfielder Shaun Dascher and first baseman Chris Brockman (who stole a combined 47 bases) and two other starters, but this is a team that outscored its opponents 400-262 last season while scoring 9.8 runs per game. The pitching staff loses just one starter and a top reliever while welcoming three transfers, so the Regents, always a league contender, could be the favorites this year.

Aurora looks to make the next step after losing in the conference tournament final last year. The Spartans (29-13, 16-6) return one of the best pitchers in the region, D3baseball.com preseason All-American Steve Salazar (5-4, 2.12 ERA, three shutouts). If the Spartans, World Series participants in 2004 and 2006, develop someone after Salazar and Dan McCarthy (8-1, 3.81 ERA), they could take that next step. Aurora lost some quality arms behind the ace, but last year the Spartans had an ERA more than a full run better than the next Northern AC team. Senior outfielder Tony Wellner (.411 AVG., 11 HR, .756 SLG %) is back to anchor the lineup, which loses five starters who combined to bat .337 and accounted for 198 of the team's 356 RBI's.

Concordia (Wis.) is led by 2009 Northern AC Player of the Year and D3baseball.com preseason All-American outfielder Jon Olla (led nation with a .602 OBP). However, the Falcons (22-17, 14-8) must pitch better to contend. Last year the team had a 7.84 ERA and allowed opponents to bat .344. Then again Concordia (Wis.) swept UW-Whitewater to end last season, so the talent is there to beat the region's elite.

Concordia University Winter Baseball Camps

The Cougar Baseball Program welcomes all boys and girls ages 7 and up to attend the Cougar Kids Baseball Camp. The camp will be held at Concordia
University, 7400 Augusta Street, River Forest, Illinois.

The camp will be conducted for four weeks on Friday evenings in January and February. Each session will be two weeks in length. The areas of focus this year will be hitting and pitching.

Participants between the ages of 7-9 will attend from 7pm to 8:15pm. The session for ages 10 and up will be from 8:30pm to 9:45pm.


Cost per session is $80.00. Sign up for more than one session and receive a $20.00 discount.

Registration forms can be found online at: www.cuchicago.edu/athletics/camps/index.asp or you can call 708-771-8300.