SPOKANE, Wash. – The Concordia Texas baseball team saw their 2018 season come to a close with a 13-4 loss to Willamette Friday night in the NCAA West Regional at Avista Stadium.
 
CTX fell behind 5-0 early and battled back to make the score 5-4, but could not get any closer as they wrap up the season with a 29-18 overall record.
 
The Bearcats jumped ahead thanks to a four-run first inning and tacked on another in the second to extend the lead to five heading into the top half of the third.
 
In the third, the Tornados got on the board with two runs thanks to an error to score Michael Evan and a two-out RBI single off the bat of Carson Cox to bring home Clarence Guidry III.
 
Cox, a junior from Cotulla, Texas, came through once again in the fifth with a two-RBI double down the right field line to cut the lead to 5-4. The American Southwest Conference newcomer of the year finished the day 2-for-4 and drove home three runs.
 
Willamette responded, however, with two runs of their own in the bottom half of the fifth. They then broke the game open with a five-run seventh inning, highlighted by a grand slam by Tyler Janitz, and added another in the eighth to make the score 13-4.
 
The Tornados will say goodbye to seniors Cole Angelle, Ryan Capel, Michael Evan, Caleb Maddox, Kylen Harrell, Caleb Rodriguez, Justin Traxler and Daniel Williams.
 
CTX won the 2018 American Southwest Conference regular season title and advanced to the NCAA Regionals for the fifth time in school history. Concordia will return six position players who appeared in at least 30 games this season as well as starting pitchers Calvin Bush and Matthew Williams for the 2019 season.