Illinois Wesleyan shortstop Pat Cinquegrani fields a ground ball in the Titans' loss to Blackburn in the NCAA Regional Friday.

Sixth-seeded Aurora Captures NCAA Division III Regional Tournament

Sixth-seeded Aurora University, which had opened the tournament by defeating top-seeded Illinois Wesleyan, breezed to a 21-4 victory over Carthage for its third straight win and the championship of the NCAA Division III Regional Baseball Tournament Sunday (5/23) at Jack Horenberger Field.

Aurora advances to the NCAA Division III World Series next week at Appleton, Wis., where the Spartans will open against Brockport State.

Aurora scored six runs in the second and nine in the third on the way to its 26th win against 17 losses. In addition to pounding out 21 hits — three each by Jay Lavender, Kevin Morris, and Aaron Thor — the Spartans benefitted by having an NCAA record 11 batters hit by Carthage pitchers.

Illinois Wesleyan, which won the championship of the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin, finished the season at 28-19. Blackburn is now 24-18. The Titans placed one player, sophomore Cory Lapinski, on the all-tournament team. Lapinski had four hits in nine at-bats in IWU's two losses in the tournament.

Results and schedule

NCAA Regional at Illinois Wesleyan