NAPERVILLE, Ill. -- North Central clinched the outright College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) baseball title with a 10-4 victory over North Park on Friday at Zimmerman Stadium.

It was the program's 16th CCIW baseball title as head coach Ed Mathey has been at the helm for nine of them. Mathey served as the Cardinals' head coach from 1994 to 2002, leading them to CCIW titles in 1994, 1996 and 1998. He returned to North Central in 2015 following a 12-year stint at Northern Illinois. 

This year's title is also the sixth-straight for the program, which set a new conference record, topping the old mark of five-straight set by Jack Horenberger's Illinois Wesleyan Titans from 1956 to 1960. Mathey's North Central teams have won a CCIW regular season title each year since he returned in 2015. 

The Cardinals, winners of 21 of their last 22 games, will finish out the regular season on Saturday with a double header at North Park.

North Central and Wheaton will serve as hosts of the 2021 CCIW Baseball Tournament beginning on Wednesday. A play-in game between Nos. 8 and 9 seeds will take place on Monday at the highest seeded site (all tournament information is subject to change). 
The College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) was founded in 1946 and currently services nine member institutions including Augustana College (Rock Island, IL), Carroll University (Waukesha, WI), Carthage College (Kenosha, WI), Elmhurst College (Elmhurst, IL), Illinois Wesleyan University (Bloomington, IL), Millikin University (Decatur, IL), North Central College (Naperville, IL), North Park University (Chicago, IL) and Wheaton College (Wheaton, IL).