The Cougars pitching in the 2025 season played a major role in the resurgence of CUC baseball.
The Cougars finished third place in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference, a conference they used to dominate before Covid. During the 2010s, Concordia Chicago won the NACC eight times including seven straight years to end the 2010s.
However, since COVID-19, the Cougars had not finished above 6th place. In the 2025 season, their pitching helped in leading them back to the top where the program is accustomed to.
“We aren’t looking at stats,” said pitcher Dylan Ferraro, currently a junior. “We are focused on winning games. It’s winning that matters, not our ERA.”
In 2025, the Cougars finished atop the NACC with a team earned run average of 4.32, a stat that shows how many runs a pitcher is giving up per nine innings (a lower ERA is better). That team ERA was down more than a whole run compared their 5.00 average from 2024.
What did the Cougars change to drastically lower this stat in just one season? They put a big focus on not giving up free bases by walking the opponent.
“Our focus on not giving up free bases started in the Fall,” said head coach Matt Smith. “We want to make hitters put the ball in play. Our pitchers saw early success and it has snowballed further.”
Limiting giving up free bases by way of walks has been a huge focus for the Cougars pitching staff going all the way back to the fall offseason. In the 2024 season, the Cougars were 2nd in the NACC in giving up walks with a total of 232 walks that season and an average of nearly six walks per game. In this past 2025 season, the Cougars only walked 164 batters through their 42 games for an average of only 4 walks per game.
The success that the pitching staff found last season can also be attributed to the bond the pitchers have and how they embrace their role.
“The pitching staff has come together more this year. There have been clashes in previous years, but we have gelled a ton more this season,” said last season’s senior pitcher Anthony Pullano.
Towards the end of the 2024 season, the bullpen for the Cougars came up with the nickname “The Night Shift” for when it was time for them to complete the game. As Smith described, this embrace of their role truly helped the bullpen to become dominant towards the end of last season. This embrace of their role and not trying to be superman every game has played a big role in the dominance of the Cougars pitching this season.
“Guys this year know and embrace their role this season a lot more than seasons past,” said Smith. “The captains have really helped to enforce this mentality,”
As the regular season came to an end the Cougars were focused on one thing and one thing only, winning.
“It is easy and fun to look at stats but winning is number 1. We cannot get wrapped up in the numbers, we need to stay focused on not giving up free bases,” said now senior pitcher Eliot Higgins.
The Cougars had the same goal this whole year and that is making regionals. In order to do so, they had to win the NACC conference tournament. Regionals in baseball is very similar to March Madness in College Basketball. 64 teams will make regionals, and winning your conference guarantees your spot, while the remaining at large spots are voted on by a committee.
Unfortunately, the Cougars would wind up falling short of this goal, losing in the quarterfinals of the NACC tournament.
Regionals used to feel almost automatic for the Cougars. They made eight straight regionals appearances from 2012 to 2019, and had even made super regionals in 2019, and the College World Series in 2018 and 2017. While the Cougars fell short of a regional appearance last Spring, the season still represented a major step forward for the program.
Going into the 2026 season, the Cougars hope to build off their successful 2025 season, and make a push for their first regionals appearance since 2019. The Cougars return many key players such as first team All-Conference designated hitter Jake Mahler alongside three second team All-Conference pitchers in Ryan Renella, Michael Southard, and Eliot Higgins.
However, they do have a change of head coach as previous head coach Kolin Conner took a new head coaching opportunity at University of Indiana Kokomo. Last year’s pitching coach, Smith, took over the head coaching role.
With a strong group of returners, and continued improvement on the pitching end, the Cougars have a great chance to build off a strong 2025 season and make their first regionals since 2019.
