ROCK ISLAND, Ill. — Augustana completed a sweep of the College Conference team championships on Sunday, May 15 with a 10-1 win over Illinois Wesleyan in the championship game of the league's tournament. With the win head coach Greg Wallace's team not only won the CCIW Tournament for the second time in the last four years and the third time in school history, but the Vikings also secured the NCAA Division III automatic berth that goes to the winner.
 
Just one week earlier Augustana won the CCIW championship with a three-game sweep of Millikin. That is the second CCIW title in the last three years for the Vikings and senior Chris Sauer (Rock Canyon HS, Littleton, Colo.) was the winning pitcher in both of those decisive wins.
 
Augustana will now head to Sauget, Illinois near St. Louis, Missouri to play in the Central Regional, which is hosted by Webster University. The tournament will be held at GSC Ballpark and will also feature Wisconsin-Whitewater (29-14) as the number one seed with Wartburg (33-11) checking in at number two. The Vikings drew the number three seed with their 30-12 record and will play fourth seeded Washington (31-16) on Wednesday, May 18. Rose-Hulman (29-11) is the fifth seed and Westminster (28-13) is the sixth seed.
 
The Vikings will play the 7:00 p.m. game on Wednesday night. UW-Whitewater and Westminster will play at 12:00 noon and Wartburg and Rose-Hulman will face off at 3:30 p.m.
 
This will be the fifth NCAA appearance for Augustana and all have come under Wallace's tenure. The Vikings made previous appearances in 1999, 2007, 2008 and 2013.
 
Augustana has won seven games in a row and 12 of its last 13 games. The Vikings feature a starting pitching staff that has been very good all year long. Senior Walter White (East Peoria HS, East Peoria, Ill.) is 8-1 with a 2.07 earned run average in 82 2/3 innings pitched. He tied the school records for strikeouts in a single season with 104 in his last start, which was a 3-0 win over Carthage in the first game of the CCIW Tournament on Thursday, May 12. Senior Zach Morgenstern (Peoria Notre Dame HS, East Peoria, Ill.) is 6-3 with a 2.64 ERA in 71 2/3 innings of work with 79 strikeouts. Sauer is now 7-2 with a 3.10 ERA and 54 strikeouts in 72 2/3 innings. Junior Kyle McGinley (Mullen HS, Denver, Colo.) is 3-1 with a 1.93 ERA and has been the top guy out of the bullpen with 46 strikeouts in 32 2/3 innings.
 
The Vikings are hitting .316 as a team and averaging over seven runs per game. Junior Peter Doughty (York HS, Elmhurst, Ill.) leads the team in average at .404 with 23 hits in 58 at-bats while senior Jeff Prior (Rock Canyon HS, Lone Tree, Colo.) is swinging at a .379 clip with 22 hits in 58 at-bats. Sophomore Carter Amundsen (Sheboygan South HS, Sheboygan, Wis.) is hitting .350 with 28 hits in 80 at-bats. Senior John Swiderski (Geneva HS, Geneva, Ill.) checks in with a .337 average with 56 hits in 166 at-bats and he leads the team in home runs (6) and runs-batted-in (36). He also has 10 doubles. Freshman Ryan Kairis (Marist HS, Chicago, Ill.) and senior Trace Gingerich (Sherrard HS, Sherrard, Ill.) are tied for the team lead in doubles with 13 each while senior Nathan Gray (Rock Island HS, Rock Island, Ill.) is tops in triples with a school-record tying seven. Gray is also the stolen base leader with 17.

NCAA Division III Central Regional Website