Perfect records and microscopic ERAs are scattered throughout the rosters of all four teams at the NCAA Central Regional, which begins Thursday morning at 11 a.m. at Monmouth College’s Glasgow Field. Each head coach in the tournament has to believe he has the staff to live up to the old baseball adage that “pitching and defense wins championships.”

For good measure, strong mound performances often takes center stage at pitcher-friendly Glasgow Field, where the wind often blows straight in from center field.

“It’s been a pitcher’s park, primarily because of the way it’s laid out,” said MC baseball coach Roger Sander, whose team has won 18 of its last 19 games to stand at 24-11 on the year. “We think it’s a good size for a college field, it’s just that at this time of the year, the wind comes in a lot from the north and the west.”

Leading the list of entrants in the double-elimination event is Aurora University (33-4), the top seed and the third-ranked team in the country. The Spartans will play their first game Thursday at 3 p.m. against Monmouth College.

“Seeds don’t mean anything,” said Sander. “Just ask Ripon and Knox.”

Sander was referring to Knox’s big upset of Ripon, the top North Division seed and four-time defending champion entering last week’s Midwest Conference Championship Tournament. The Prairie Fire posted a 6-5 victory, sending Ripon to the loser’s bracket, which wound up costing the Red Hawks dearly in the rain-shortened event.

“I’ve preached to the kids that when you get to this part of the season, everybody’s good,” said Sander. “It’s tournament time, and the team that gets hot at the right time is going to win it.

“We feel very confident,” he added. “The best-kept secret on this team is our No. 3-9 pitchers” and, of course, his staff boasts the 1-2 punch of Ryan Johnson (9-2, 3.46) and Joe Larkins (6-2, 2.13). One of those two will get the call against Aurora in the regional opener.

Head coach Mark Walsh is guiding the Spartans to their 14th NCAA appearance and 13th in the last 14 years. Aurora has won Central Region titles in 1990, 1992, 1998, and 1999. The Spartans finished second at the 1990 NCAA Division III Championship, seventh in 1992, fourth in 1998 and seventh in 1999.

Captain Russ Lorenz leads the Spartans with a .483 batting average and 49 runs scored, one of four AU players above .400. That list also includes Brian Dolewski (.433), Jack Dime (.422) and Brian Chelgren (.409). Chelgran has a team-high 10 home runs and 46 RBI. Captain Josh Paddock leads the pitching staff with a 7-0 record, a 0.96 ERA and 45 strikeouts. Uriel Quiles is also 7-0 with a 2.85 ERA and Chris Olson is 5-0 with a 3.14 ERA.

Carthage College qualified for the “big dance” by winning the always-tough CCIW. The 25th-ranked Redmen are making their 10th NCAA appearance, and they won regionals in 1993, 994, 1995 and 1997. Carthage has posted one third place national finish and three fourth-place finishes.

Two players riding hot streaks are first baseman Luke Martin, who’s hit in 19 straight games, and recent CCIW Player of the Week Dan Lorum, who allowed two earned runs in conference wins over Augustana and North Central. Through May 6, batterymate Jason Lensmeyer led the CCIW in batting, home runs, total bases and RBI.

The Redmen have an ace in the bullpen, Brandon Roth, who has saved a school-record six games, and veteran coach Augie Schmidt IV is also high on his starters, which include Lorum, Dan Grybash and Jason Wiertel. Also on the Carthage staff is former Warren High School standout Adam Robinson, who has an 0.96 ERA this season in 9.1 innings.

Wartburg, the six-time defending Iowa Conference champions, has won 17 of their last 20 games coming into the regional, and the Knights are one win shy of their fifth straight 30-victory campaign. First baseman Greg Torgerson and second baseman Jude Burger have led the recent Wartburg uprising. Torgerson is hitting .467 with six doubles, seven home runs and 36 RBIs over the last 20 contests. His slugging percentage is a whopping .827 during that time period and his on-base percentage is at .539. Burger, the team leader in stolen bases (34), has shown he can handle the bat as well, hitting .400 with four doubles, a home run and 16 RBIs over the same time span. He ranks 10th in the nation in stolen bases per game.

Three Wartburg pitchers have four wins or more during the last 20 games. Southpaw Chris Goerdt and Ash Larsen are both 4-0 in that period. Goerdt brings a perfect 9-0 record into the tournament, while Larsen has accumulated a 5.30 ERA but has been very strong in relation to strikeout-to-walk ratio (nearly three to one) during his last eight outings.

Head coach Joel Holst is in his seventh season at Wartburg. The level of the success attained by the Knights baseball program in Holst’s tenure couldn’t be much higher. Wartburg has won six straight Iowa Conference titles and the 2000 team, ranked No. 6 at the end of the year, won the NCAA Division III Central Region title, advancing to the College World Series for the first time in school history.

On March 23, Sander’s Fighting Scots squandered a 13-5 lead against Missouri Baptist, losing 16-13 to drop their fifth straight game and fall to 6-10. The head coach immediately issued an edict that the first 16 games of the season were to be forgotten, and Monmouth was starting a “second season.”

That mindset has worked out quite well for the Scots, who are 18-1 since that fateful day, including a 2-0 performance on May 11 that clinched the rain-shortened Midwest Conference title. Pitching has been the main story, as the staff, led by Johnson and Larkins, has an ERA well under 2.00 in the last 19 games. During that span, Larkins and Johnson have combined to go 13-0, including both wins at the MWC playoffs.

Offensively, MC has received solid production from Beau Hellman (.353) and Thad King (.327) at the top of the order. Taylor Thiel, just broke the MC single-season home run record with his 11th long ball, and timely hitting throughout the lineup has also been a key.

“We came back from Florida feeling pretty good, but then we lost those five straight games to Augustana and Missouria Baptist,” said Sander. “I think the guys thought we were going to win all five of those. So we needed an attitude adjustment. We started to go after it pretty hard with two-a-days in the middle of the season, and some guys rededicated themselves. I’m convinced that if it weren’t for Scots Day (which preceded a 6-0 loss to Grinnell), we’d be 19-0 (in this stretch).”

Aside from wishing that the Scots could have started the tournament on Tuesday’s beautiful day of weather, Sander had nothing but good thoughts about the regional.

“It’s going to be a championship atmosphere,” he said. “It’ll be just like last Friday for the MWC tournament. Even people who aren’t big fans of baseball were stopping off at the park and staying to watch. This is going to be one of the best regionals in the country. I’ve checked out the other pairings, and ours is right up there.

“I’ve said it many times that we’re so fortunate,” he continued. “We’ve got maybe the finest field in Division III. A few others may look better, but no field will play any better than ours. It’s very exciting for us to have everybody come here and see our facility.”

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