Chaparrals Men's Baseball Claims Region IV Championship

By: Mark Reinhiller

Baseball players celebrating after title win

For the first time since 2002, the College of DuPage Chaparrals wear the Region 4 championship crown.

The Chaps built a 10-3 lead through six innings, and then held off No. 4-seed Oakton in an 11-8 victory Sunday afternoon that brought the obligatory ice bath for Chaps' assistant coaches Matt Gould, Pat Leahy and Jake Robert.

Winning the Region 4 title bestowed Gould with the Region 4 Coach of the Year.

No. 15-ranked COD (29-16 overall) won for the 13th straight time and 22nd of its last 25 games and now will travel to Fremont, Ohio, for a best-of-three series against Terra State that begins Friday.

The Chaparrals and Titans (20-26 overall) play Friday afternoon at Sports Force Parks at Cedar Point Sports Center in Sandusky, Ohio. Friday's games begin at noon Eastern with a second game to follow.

A third-and-deciding game would be played Saturday at Heidelberg University in Tiffin, Ohio. That game time is unknown as of Wednesday afternoon.

The final scores were COD 11, Oakton 8.

  • The Chaps never trailed in the game and led early, taking a 2-0 lead on a pair of unearned runs in the first and benefiting from four Oakton errors.
  • Tourney MVP Filip Milatovic’s RBI-single scored Mark Mennecke (double) in the third for a 3-1 lead.
  • Leading 3-2, COD padded the lead on Joe Pender’s two-run home run over the left-field wall in the fifth for a 5-2 lead.
  • After Oakton got one back in the sixth, COD answered with a five-run, five-hit sixth.
  • The Chaps sent 10 to the plate in the inning.
  • Hudson Williams’ RBI-double scored Michael Morgan, who led off with a walk.
  • Back-to-back hit by pitches loaded the bases for Pender, who delivered a sac fly to left that scored Williams.
  • Milatovic added an infield ground-out that scored Jake Pauley.
  • Jack Wade finished off the inning with a two-run single.
  • Oakton responded with a five-run seventh, and COD led 10-8.
  • Vinny Spotofora’s two-out single scored Milatovic in the eighth.
  • RHP Aiden Pienazek threw 3 2/3 innings, striking out one and issuing five walks.
  • Reliever Mike Biscan came on in the fourth, and threw three innings, striking out one for the victory.
  • Leading 10-8, lefty Ryan Sigale came on with two outs in the seventh. 
  • Sigale earned the save, giving up one hit and allowing just one Owl to reach base.
  • Pender, Milatovic, Spotofora, and Wade each drove in two runs.

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