NAPERVILLE, Ill. – Matt Ozanic (East Leyden HS, Franklin Park, Ill.) homered and drove in four runs Thursday as Augustana picked up a key 12-6 road win over North Central at Zimmerman Stadium. The victory lifts Coach Greg Wallace's club to 24-5 on the season and 16-5 in the conference. The Vikings, winners of six straight, are now just a game back of the league-leading Cardinals (23-6, 17-4) with 11 to play. The teams split four head-to-head contests this year.
 
North Central jumped on top 3-0. The Cardinals scored a run in the first on Luke Lehnen's leadoff double and Rob Marinec's RBI single to left. They added two unearned runs in the second. Kobe Shutter reached on an error leading off and later scored, along with Lehnen, on Dom Listi's two-run triple to center.
 
Zachary Vrbancic's (Stagg HS, Palos Hills, Ill.) one-out single ignited a seven-run Augustana third. After Michael Gattuso (St. Charles North HS, St. Charles, Ill.) walked, Alex Simon (Hinsdale Central HS, Naperville, Ill.) singled in Vrbancic. Justin Rios hit Mitchell Owens (Moline HS, Moline, Ill.) to load the bases and Ozanic's two-run single to right tied the game.
 
Jordan Litke came on to relieve Rios and walked Matt Helms (Palatine HS, Palatine, Ill.) to load the bases again. Griffen Pschigoda's (Wheaton Warrenville South HS, Wheaton, Ill.) sacrifice fly plated Owens with the go-ahead run and Brett Benedetti (Cherry Creek HS, Greenwood Village, Colo.) loaded the bases yet again when he was hit by a pitch. Alec McGinnis' (Normal West HS, Normal, Ill.) RBI infield hit and Vrbancic's two-run single to left gave the Vikings a 7-3 lead after 2½.
 
Starter Sam Cregan (Air Academy, Colorado Springs, Colo.) settled in and his teammates added a run in the fourth when Simon had a leadoff single and scored on Helms' RBI groundout.
 
Rios led off the North Central fifth with a single and scored on Shutter's double to right center to cut the Cardinals' deficit to 8-4.
 
Augustana added two runs each in the sixth and eighth. Gattuso led off the sixth with a walk and scored on a Helms fielder's choice. Simon was hit by a pitch and eventually stole home. In the eighth, Owens was hit again and Ozanic followed with a homer to right, his fourth of the season.
 
Sophomore  Jacob Reusch (Mercer County HS, Aledo, Ill.) came on in relief of Cregan to start the sixth. The rubber-armed lefty, making his 10th appearance in the Vikings' last 13 dates, went three innings and allowed just an unearned run in the seventh.
 
North Central scored a run in the ninth off John Hayes (Cherry Creek HS, Greenwood Village, Colo.), but the Augustana closer got Shutter to fly to Helms in right to end the contest.
 
Cregan allowed nine hits and two earned runs in five innings and got the win to improve to 3-1 on the year. He walked one and fanned one. Rios (1-1) lasted 2 1/3 innings and took the loss.
 
Ozanic finished 3-for-3 with two runs scored and four driven in. Simon, McGinnis and Vrbancic each had two hits and Simon scored three times. The Vikings' nine-hit attack was complimented by six walks and five hit batters.
 
Next up for Wallace's crew is a three-game weekend set versus Millikin. Augustana visits Decatur, Illinois for a doubleheader on Saturday, May 1, before returning to Swanson Stadium/Brunner Field to host the Big Blue for a single contest on Sunday, May 2.