The Benedictine University baseball team is heading the the NCAA Regionals for the first time since 2013 by virtue of winning the 2024 NACC Tournament Championship for the first time in program history.
The team secured the automatic bid by winning the winner-take-all contest over Aurora 13-8.
The championship did not come easily. Aurora posted a 4-3 win in the first game to force the decisive contest. Benedictine led 13-0 but Aurora stormed all the way back to make the game interesting late before
Dan Dombrowski closed the door.
Logan Gregorio posted four hits in the win.
DeShawnte Carraway and
Jake Petak both homered in the game.
Austin Pizer was selected as the MVP of the tournament. Pizer pitched in three games, all Benedictine wins, and was 2-0 with a save. Pizer started the decisive contest and threw six innings.
Nick Kosmetatos tossed a complete game in the opener but Aurora scored four runs in the fourth to erase an early 1-0 deficit and held on for the one-run win.
George Betevis, who was named to the all-tournament team, homered and drove home two in the loss.
Benedictine scored three runs in the second game to take the lead. Petak knocked home the first run and Gregorio posted a two-run single. The game was blown open behind a nine-run fifth. Petak hit a two-run homer and Carraway a three-run blast. Benedictine finished with 14 hits as the visiting team in the game with four from Gregorio and three from
Brennan Fisher.
Benedictine (32-11) will find out their NCAA destination on Monday.
