Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

MOLINE, Ill. – North Central pounded out 17 hits in each game Sunday to take a doubleheader from Augustana 9-6 and 17-8 at Swanson Stadium/Brunner Field. The Vikings fell to 18-6 on the year and 4-4 in the CCIW. The Cardinals improved to 9-7 overall and 6-1 in the league. The teams will complete a three-game set with a single game in Naperville, Illinois on Tuesday, April 11. First pitch is scheduled for 3:00 p.m.
 
NORTH CENTRAL 9, AUGUSTANA 6
 
North Central got to Zach Morgenstern (Peoria Notre Dame HS, East Peoria, Ill.) for a run in the first, but the Augustana ace left the bases loaded to avoid further damage.
 
Sophomore Nick Mosele's (University HS, Bloomington, Ill.) leadoff single started a five-run Viking third. Junior Carter Amundsen (Sheboygan South HS, Sheboygan, Wis.) and seniors Mitchel Ruh (Hinckley-Big Rock HS, Big Rock, Ill.) and Peter Doughty (York HS, Elmhurst, Ill.) all had RBI singles and sophomore Ryan Kairis (Marist HS, Chicago, Ill.) delivered two runs with a single as the hosts took a 5-1 lead.
 
The Cardinals chipped away at Morgenstern, plating a run each in the fourth and fifth before tying it with two in the sixth.
 
Senior Nick Refka (Palatine HS, Palatine, Ill.) came on in relief to start the seventh and retired six straight, allowing Augustana to regain the lead with a run in the bottom of the eighth. Mosele singled in Kairis with the go-ahead run.
 
The lead didn't last however, as Nick Sotiros' leadoff homer in the top of the ninth tied it. Chris Hill followed with a double that knocked out Refka in favor of Casey Weir (Warren HS, Wadsworth, Ill.). Sing Fong singled in Hill and John Carmody followed with a two-run homer to right that put North Central up 9-6. Cardinal reliever Nick Rogalski gave up two hits in the bottom half, but escaped unscathed for his third save of the year. Anthony Serafini (1-0) picked up the win, while Refka (2-2) suffered the loss.
 
Mosele and Amundsen each had three of Augustana's 13 hits.
 
NORTH CENTRAL 17, AUGUSTANA 8
 
In game two, junior Tyler Nunez (Byron HS, Byron, Ill.) led off the bottom of the first with a single and scored the game's first run on a wild pitch.
 
After two scoreless innings, freshman Chris Refka (Palatine HS, Palatine, Ill.) gave up two runs each in the third and fourth. After a Nunez sacrifice fly plated a Viking run in the fourth, Refka gave up consecutive doubles to Hill and Fong to start the fifth, bringing classmate Travis Gates (Prospect HS, Mt. Prospect, Ill.) out of the bullpen. Carmody greeted him with an RBI double and the Cardinals led 6-2 after five and a half.
 
Doughty's RBI double in the fifth trimmed the deficit to 6-3, but the sixth would see that last scoreless half innings of the contest, as both team scored in each of the last three frames. North Central tallied five in the top of the seventh and Augustana answered with a pair. The Cardinals tacked on four in the eighth and John Moraski (Kewanee HS, Kewanee, Ill.) drove in a pair of Vikings runs with a double in the bottom half. Finally, the visitors plated two in the ninth and Augustana mustered one to account for the final.
 
North Central's Michael Mateja went 4-for-5 with six RBI, while Carmody finished 4-of-6. Moraski, senior Cayton Wallace (Assumption HS, Rock Isand, Ill.), Kairis and Mosele each had a pair of hits for the Vikings.
 
Cardinal starter Nick Anderson went 6 1/3 innings and picked up his second win against three losses. Refka lost his first decision of the season.