Box Score The Dominican University baseball team topped the Concordia University Wisconsin Falcons in the second round of the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) Tournament, 9-4 on Friday afternoon.  The Stars' offense put up a five-spot in the bottom of the first and that proved to be the difference as the Stars move to 2-0 in the NACC Tournament.
 
The Dominican bats went to work early as Cody Schuster (Las Vegas, Nev.) roped a ground-rule double to center ahead of Joe Lyons (Chicago Ridge, Ill.) who lined a two-run single to center to score Schuster and Quinlan Milne Rojek (Minneapolis, Minn.).  After a walk by Quentin Becquey (St. Julien Le Faucon, France), Thomas Smith (Lockport, Ill.) lined a triple to right-center and then scored on a wild pitch as the Stars opened a 5-0 lead after the first.
 
The Falcons loaded the bases in the second with back-to-back-to-back singles by Luke Scheuerlein, Jordan Mathiebe and Taylor Buuk with one out.  Kukla managed to leave them loaded, getting help from Smith who made a catch in shallow left with his back to the infield before Joe Krasny (Berwyn, Ill.) made a running catch in center to end the threat.
 
Concordia Wisconsin got to Kukla in the third, pushing across two runs on two hits to pull within 5-2 but the Stars answered in the bottom of the inning, plating a pair on RBI singles by Becquey and Lucas McKinney (Arvada, Colo.) after Schuster drew a walk to lead off the frame.
 
After a scoreless fourth and fifth for both teams, Concordia Wisconsin got a sacrifice fly by Buuk to score Matt Schubert and Bryan Thomas followed with a RBI triple to score Scheuerlein in the top of the sixth.  That led Stars' head coach Steve Hardman, in his third season, to go to the bullpen, calling on Chance Emlund (Chicago, Ill.) with two out in the top of the sixth and a runner at third.  Emlund battled back from a 3-1 count, striking out Brandon Seifert to minimize the damage.
 
Kukla was charged with four eraned runs on ten hits and two walks over five-plus innings while striking out two, leaving the game with the Stars up 7-4.
 
As they did in the third, Dominican answered the Falcons' two-spot in the top of the sixth, scoring two runs on an infield single by Krasny after Tim Varallo (Chicago, Ill.) doubled down the right field line to put runners at second and third.
 
Emlund held the Falcons scoreless the rest of the way to pick up his first save of the season.  Kukla picked up the win, moving to 4-4 on the season.
 
The teams pounded out 13 hits apiece with McKinney and Milne Rojek picking up three hits apiece for the Stars while Lyons and Smith each drove in a pair.
 
With the win, Dominican moves to 23-16 on the season and remains undefeated in the 2014 NACC Baseball Tournament.  The Stars will retake to the field at Kapco Park at 7:00 p.m. to face the Concordia University Chicago Cougars (35-5) who topped the Rockford University Regents and Edgewood College Eagles in their two NACC tournament games.