Concordia Chicago Baseball earns pair of honors
RIVER FOREST, Ill. -- The Concordia Chicago baseball team is hoping for great things in May, and the first day of the month brought with it two good omens for the program. The team is ranked sixth in the latest NCAA III Central region rankings, and senior catcher/first baseman J.D. Rotzoll (Mount Prospect, IL – Prospect H.S.) has been named the Division III Hitter of the Week by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.

The latest team rankings by the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) mark the second time in the past two seasons that the Cougars have been recognized, the first coming in late April of 2007 when the team was ranked eighth. Concordia received this latest ranking on the strength of a 27-10 record, 23-9 within regional play. Their in-region record includes wins over Wartburg College (#4) and Rockford College (#5) as well as one-run losses to Illinois Wesleyan University (#1) and Augustana College (#3). The Cougars will close their regular-season schedule with a May 6 home date against Carthage College, ranked second in this latest poll.

Ninth-year head coach Spiro Lempesis remarked, "We're happy to be considered with these other fine teams by the voters. We feel that we're playing very good baseball right now, and we want to parlay that into a great performance at the conference tournament and hopefully earn a Division III tournament bid."

Rotzoll becomes the first Cougar to receive the national award from the NCBWA after Brandon Isaac (Matteson, IL – Marian Catholic H.S.) and Ryan Hantel (Mount Prospect, IL – Prospect H.S.) were named honorable mention Hitter and Pitcher of the Week respectively during the 2007 season. Rotzoll hit .565 (13-23) in six games last week, scoring 10 runs, homering in five of the contests, and compiling a gaudy slugging percentage of 1.478. He hit a pair of homers in the April 22 game at Illinois Wesleyan and one in each of the four conference games over the weekend against Edgewood College and Concordia University Wisconsin in which the Cougars went 4-0 and moved into third place in the Northern Athletics Conference.

"J.D. is having an outstanding season, and he gave us his best last weekend in some very important games," stated Lempesis. "All of us are very happy that he received this honor, and we hope that he stays hot and finishes up his senior year in a blaze of glory."

Courtesy of Concordia University Chicago, Sports Information Department, May 1, 2008.