The Carthage College baseball team (10-3, 2-0 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin), ranked 21st in the March 29 National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association /"D3baseball.com" poll, opened its CCIW-schedule on Saturday, April 2 by sweeping a doubleheader from Elmhurst College (10-4, 0-2 CCIW), 10-2 and 16-11, at the Carthage Baseball Field in Kenosha, Wis.  The games were the first for the Red Men since defeating Wisconsin-Oshkosh, 6-1, on March 19 in North Port, Fla.  Carthage and Elmhurst conclude the three-game series with a 1 p.m. game on Sunday, April 3 at Butterfield Park in Elmhurst, Ill.

Carthage took a 1-0 lead in the second inning of the opening game on an RBI-grounder off the bat of Matt Soderlund.  Back-to-back RBI-singles by John Hasser and Will Hodges in the third made it 3-0.  Mike Petti's RBI-single in the fifth, along with a Will Hodges sacrifice fly and a Zach Kozlowski RBI-single, upped the Red Men's lead to 6-0.  The Bluejays scored twice in the sixth to cut the lead to 6-2.  Carthage took a 7-2 lead in the sixth on Joey Aiello's sacrifice fly.  Aiello drove home two runs with a double in the eighth, and Hodges hit a sacrifice fly to close out the scoring at 10-2. 

Starting pitcher Mario Perez (Sr., Gurnee, Ill./Warren Township, 2-0) worked the first six innings and allowed two unearned runs on five hits and no walks, while striking out seven batters.  Mitch Lochen (So., Glenview, Ill./Glenbrook South) blanked the Bluejays on one hit over the final three innings to collect his fourth save of the season.  Joe Luft (1-1) took the loss for Elmhurst.  Joey Aiello (Sr., Libertyville, Ill.) went three-for-four with three RBI, and Will Hodges (Sr., Oak Park, Ill./Naperville-North) drove in three runs.

In the nightcap, starting pitcher Danny Dahm got in trouble in the second inning when the Bluejays loaded the bases on an infield error, a hit batter and a walk.  Brian Evans and Joe Kennedy followed with RBI-singles, and Zach Hofer drove in a run with an infield grounder for a quick, 3-0 Elmhurst lead.  Will Hodges hit a solo home run in the bottom half of the second.  In this year's strange, "dead bat" era, it was Carthage's first home of the season.  The Red Men scored four times in the third to take 5-3 lead.  Kyle Pusateri scored on an infield throwing error.  Joey Aiello tripled in two runs, and John Hasser hit a sacrifice fly.  The Bluejays scored three times in the fourth to take a 6-5 lead.  Joe Kennedy hit an RBI-double and Zach Hofer a run-scoring infield to chase Dahm from the game.  Nic Jensen took over for Dahm and was greeted by a Dan Matkovic sacrifice fly for the go-ahead run. 

The Red Men re-gained the lead, 9-6, in the bottom of the fourth on back-to-back RBI-singles by Mike Petti and Joey Aiello, followed by a two-run double by John Hasser.  The donnybrook continued into the fifth inning, as Elmhurst scored three times to tie the game, 9-9.  Carthage took the lead to stay, 12-9, in the bottom of the fifth.  Chris D'Angelo scored all the way from first on a bunt single and two-base throwing error by Bluejays third baseman Zach Hofer.  Joey Aiello added a two-run double.  The Bluejays got a run back in the sixth to make it 12-10.  Zach Kozlowski scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the sixth, and Carthage led by three, 13-10.  The Bluejays' Joe Kennedy scored on a wild pitch in the seventh to shave the lead to 13-11.  Mike Petti scored in the bottom of the seventh on a stolen base/wild pitch to make it 14-11.  Kyle Pusateri hit a two-run single in the eighth to close out the scoring at 16-11.

Nic Jensen (2-0) was credited with the win in the second game, despite giving up four runs on seven hits in two and two-thirds innings.  Sam Wilhelms worked the final three innings to earn his second save.  The loss went to Dave Parr (3-1), who gave up the first 12 runs on 15 hits over four and two-thirds innings.  The Red Men pounded out 19 hits and the Bluejays 14 hits.  Will Hodges led the Red Men with four hits in five trips and three stolen bases.  Joey Aiello went three-for-five with a double, a triple and five RBI.  Kyle Pusateri (Jr., Schaumburg, Ill.) went three-for-five with two RBI, and Mike Petti (Sr., Mundelein, Ill.) had three hits in five trips with two stolen bases.  Joey Aiello went six-for-nine with eight RBI in the two games.