DECATUR, Ill. — Millikin secured the 2026 College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) Baseball Championship on Saturday at Workman Family Baseball Field, closing the final day of the tournament with a 6-5 win over North Park in the championship game. 
 
The top-seeded Big Blue earned the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championship and claimed their second CCIW Tournament title in three seasons. North Park reached the title round earlier in the day with a 12-9 elimination-game win over Carthage.
 
Championship: #1 Millikin def. #3 North Park, 6-5 
Millikin opened the scoring in the fourth inning when Carder Reich singled to right field to bring home Pete Britton. North Park moved in front in the fifth after Eli Johnson singled home Kupono Akaka and Rylan Kawakami followed with an RBI groundout. The Big Blue answered in the bottom half of the inning, as Britton delivered a two-run single to score Mick Niebrugge and Easton Steck for a 3-2 lead.
 
The Vikings responded again in the sixth, scoring three times to take a 5-3 advantage. Reyn Matsuzaki drove in a run with a single, John Greenwood scored on a throwing error during a pickoff attempt and Vinnie Marvucic added an RBI single later in the inning. Millikin cut the deficit to one in the bottom of the sixth when Niebrugge scored on an error, then tied the game in the eighth on Anderson Decker’s RBI single through the right side.
 
The championship was decided in the ninth after Millikin loaded the bases. A wild pitch brought home the winning run and gave the Big Blue their second tournament title under head coach Brandon Townsend, following the program’s 2024 championship. Nolan Reiman threw 2.2 innings of hitless relief for Millikin, and Gavin Houchins worked a perfect ninth inning to earn the win.
 
Game 7: #3 North Park def. #4 Carthage, 12-9
North Park advanced to the championship round earlier Saturday with a 12-9 win over Carthage in an elimination game. The Vikings moved into the title game after another back-and-forth contest, using a four-run eighth inning to take the lead for good.
 
Carthage took a 2-0 lead in the first inning on Caden Meyer’s RBI double and AJ Gaca’s run-scoring groundout. North Park answered with four runs in the second, highlighted by Vinnie Marvucic’s two-run double, Eli Johnson’s RBI single and Rylan Kawakami’s run-scoring double. The Firebirds pulled even in the third on Zander Tubbs’ RBI double and a passed ball that allowed Meyer to score.
 
Carthage moved back in front in the fifth, scoring three runs behind an RBI single from Joe Zuleger and a two-run single from Dylan Ston. North Park tied the game in the sixth when Kawakami doubled home Rylan Li and Taylor Joseph followed with a two-run single. The teams traded runs in the seventh, with Ston driving in a run for Carthage before Kawakami answered with an RBI single in the bottom half.
 
North Park took control in the eighth. Reyn Matsuzaki singled in the go-ahead run, Kupono Akaka added an RBI single and Li followed with a two-run double down the left-field line to extend the Vikings’ lead to 12-8. Carthage scored once in the ninth on Ston’s triple, but Ethan Condit finished the game in relief for North Park. Condit earned the win after throwing 3.0 innings with four strikeouts.