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.

Dercks and Palmer Earn Northern Athletics Conference Baseball Players of the Week

Jimmy Dercks and Eric Palmer were named the Northern Athletics Conference baseball players of the week for the week ending April 15th.

Aurora University freshman Eric Palmer captured the Pitcher of the Week honors went 2-0 last week with a 0.60 ERA in 15 innings last week.  Palmer struck out 12 and allowed only one earned run last week and improved his record to 4-0 this season.  Eric attended East Leyden and lives in Melrose Park Illinois.

Senior shortstop Jimmy Dercks from Rockford College earned the Hitter of the Week by batting .586 with 17 hits last week.  Dercks had eight doubles, a homer and 13 rbi's on the week.  Jimmy also earned the D3Baseball.com Team of the Week earning a spot as the shortstop.  Dercks is from Kaukauna Wisconsin.

Bolton and Cunzalo Earn Northern Athletics Conference Baseball Players of the Week

Dominican University baseball players Sean Bolton and Lenny Cunzalo were both named Northern Athletics Conference Players of the Week for their performances last week.

Bolton takes home the Pitcher of the week honors going five and 1/3rd innings giving up one run and striking out seven and picking up his first victory of the season.  Sean is from Nazareth Academy and lives in Western Springs Illinois.

Cunzalo earned the Position Player of the Week after going 3-7 with a double, a triple and five rbi's over the weekend.  Lenny attended St. Patrick HS and lives in Chicago 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 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 Captures 2010 NAC Championship

Aurora University will make it's 18th appearance in the NCAA Division III Baseball Championships after capturing their first Northern Athletics Conference Championship Saturday by defeating Edgewood College 13-3 in seven innings.

Aurora (27-14) will move on to the Midwest Regional hosted by UW-Whitewater as the #6 seed in the first round of the Division III Baseball Championship

Northern Athletics Conference 2010 Baseball Tournament

The 2010 Northern Athletics Conference Tournament will be held at Road Ranger Stadium, home of the Rockford RiverHawks, May 14th through May 16th 2010.  Below is the current schedule...

May 14th
Game 1  9:00 am - #1 seed Edgewood College vs #4 Aurora University
Game 2  12:30 pm - #2 Rockford College vs #3 Concordia Wisconsin
Game 3  4:00 pm - Winner game 1 vs Winner game 2
Game 4  7:30 pm - Loser game 1 vs Loser game 2

May 15
Game 5  12:00 pm  - Loser game 3 vs Winner game 4
Game 6  3:30 pm - Winner game 3 vs Winner game 5

May 16
Game 7 (if necessary) 10:00 am - Rematch of Game 6

Northern Athletics Conference Baseball Players of the Week

Edgewood College pticher Blake O'Brien and Rockford College infielder Kyle Standridge have been named Nothern Athletics Conference players of the week for the week ending April 18th, 2010.

O'Brien, freshman pitcher from Glen Ellyn Illinois, did not allow a run in nine innings of work against Dominican last week.  The RHP allowed five hits, struck out six and walked one for the first complete game of his career.

Standridge, senior infielder from Carol Stream Illinois, hit .692 last week.  Kyle has hit safely in all 24 of Rockford's games so far this season.  Last week he recorded 14 runs, nine rbi's and a walk-off single against Lakeland.

Aurora University Baseball's Steve Salazar Named NAC Pitcher of the Week

Baseball in Illinois News

Senior pitcher Steve Salazar (Carol Stream, Ill./Glenbard West H.S.) was named the NAC Pitcher of the Week, his first time being honored this season.


On the week in which the Spartans went 2-2, Salazar threw a complete game 10-inning shutout at Monmouth College on Friday, March 19, 2010, allowing just two hits in the effort and striking out five.

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.