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Dominican University Athletics

THE OFFICIAL ATHLETIC SITE OF THE DOMINICAN UNIVERSITY STARS OFFICIAL ATHLETICS SITE OF DOMINICAN UNIVERSITY
Tim Dernulc

Baseball

Stars Ready For NAC Baseball Tournament Appearance

For the first time since the 2006 season, the Dominican University baseball team is preparing for the postseason having posted an 11-11 mark in Northern Athletics Conference (NAC) play to grab the sixth and final spot in the 2012 NAC Baseball Tournament.
 
The Stars’ sixth-seed means Dominican draws the regular season champion Aurora University Spartans who swept a NAC doubleheader from the Stars last week and lead the NAC in batting average (.374), slugging percentage (.561), on-base percentage (.441) and earned run average (1.96) while posting a conference-best 18-4 mark in NAC play.  The Stars and Spartans will kickoff tournament play on Thursday at 1:00 p.m. at Herr-Baker Field in Fond du Lac, Wis.
 
The Stars are 2-8 record against the five teams in the NAC Tournament, splitting conference series with Benedictine University, the two-seed, and Rockford College, the four-seed, while dropping doubleheaders to Aurora, Concordia Chicago and Edgewood College.  In 22 NAC games, the Stars stole a conference-best 78 bases and were caught just 11 times (.876).  As a team, the Stars batted .278 in NAC play, led by Chris Kemp’s (Burbank, Ill.) .360 conference batting average and 18 runs batted in.
 
On the mound, the Stars posted a 6.87 ERA in conference play led by junior right-hander Mitch McCaffery (Johnson Creek, Wis.) and freshman righty Cody Mueller (Addison, Ill.) who went a combined 7-3 on the hill in NAC games while lefty Zack Roszak (South Chicago, Ill.) picked up a team-best three saves, fourth most in the conference.
 
Under first-year head coach Steve Hardman, the Stars reached the 20-win mark for just the second time in program history, going an even 20-20 on the year and need just one win in the NAC Tournament to equal the program’s single-season win mark which was set in 2006 (21-21).   With Hardman at the helm, the Stars have set the program record stolen bases in a season, having swiped more than 30 bases more than any previous season in program history.
 
The Stars last made a postseason appearance in 2006, winning a rained-shortened Lake Michigan Conference (LMC) Tournament to earn the program’s only appearance in the NCAA Division III Baseball Championships.  The Stars were the four-seed in that tournament, knocking off Edgewood College, the one-seed, 7-3 in the first round before topping Marian University, 6-2, in the championship game.
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