The Carthage College baseball team (13-4, 5-1 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin), ranked 16th in the April 5 National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association /"D3baseball.com" poll, split a Saturday, April 9 doubleheader with CCIW-opponent North Central College (11-6, 5-2 CCIW) at the Carthage Baseball Field in Kenosha, Wis. Carthage won the first game, 5-4, but fell in the nightcap, 6-3 in 10 innings.
The loss in the second game snapped a 10-game Red Men winning streak. The two teams conclude the three-game series with a 1 p.m. game on Sunday, April 10 at Zimmerman Stadium/Alumni Field in Naperville, Ill.
Carthage took a 1-0 lead in the first inning of the opening game on an RBI-single by Zach Kozlowski. The Red Men upped their lead to 4-0 in the third on a base-loaded walk to Kyle Pusateri and a two-run single by Billy Herrin. The Cardinals narrowed the lead to 4-3 with three runs in the sixth. North Central loaded the bases with one out against starting pitcher Mario Perez, and Nick Daniels delivered a two-run double down the leftfield line. Matt Burke followed with a sacrifice fly.
Mario Perez (Sr., Gurnee, Ill./Warren Township) worked the first six innings and allowed three runs on six hits and four walks, while striking out six batters. Mitch Lochen (So., Glenview, Ill./Glenbrook South), who has emerged this year as the Red Men's closer, entered the game in the seventh but ran into trouble in the ninth. North Central put two runners on with two outs, and Michael Corrigan delivered a sharp single to left to score the tying run at 4-4. In the Carthage ninth, Joey Aiello led off with a single to right. Zach Kozlowski reached on a bunt single to the right side, sending Aiello to second. Cardinal relief pitcher Tyler Herman walked Will Hodges to load the bases, and Josh Albers hit a soft single to right-center to score Aiello with the game-winning run. Lochen (1-1) picked up the win. Jon Rashid pitched the first eight innings for the Cardinals before giving way to Michael McGrath (0-1) and Herman in the ninth. Zach Kozlowski (Jr., Menomonee Falls, Wis./Sussex-Hamilton) went three-for-four with an RBI.
In the second game, North Central took a 1-0 lead in the third when Nick Daniels scored from third on a sacrifice bunt by Dan Scott. The Cardinals bumped their lead to 2-0 in the sixth on an RBI-double by Dan Corrigan. North Central left the bases loaded in the sixth, as Carthage starting pitcher Danny Dahm got Matt Burke looking on a called third strike. Cardinals starter Travis Vanderwall was cruising along on a one-hitter before the Red Men got on the scoreboard in the sixth with a solo home run by Mike Petti (Sr., Mundelein, Ill.). Carthage tied the game, 2-2, in the seventh. Chris D'Angelo reached on an infield error. Matt Soderlund doubled him to third, and D'Angelo scored on an RBI-grounder by Kyle Pusateri.
That's the way things stayed until the 10th inning. In the Cardinal half of the 10th, Matt Abraham singled, and Kevin Hennessey reached on a throwing error by Red Men third baseman Chris D'Angelo. Abraham advanced to third on the play, and Hennessey made it to second. Carthage changed pitchers, bringing in Michael Sanchez to replace Nic Jensen. Dan Corrigan was walked intentionally to load the bases, but Sanchez hit the next batter, Matt Zemke, to force in the go-ahead run. A wild pitch allowed Hennessey to score, and North Central led, 4-2. Nick Daniels followed with a two-run double to make it 6-2. With the bases loaded in the bottom of the 10th against North Central reliever Michael McGrath, Red Men pinch hitter Eric Barber missed a grand-slam homer by a few feet and had to settle for a sacrifice fly that closed out the scoring at 6-3.
Travis Vanderwall (1-1) was the winning pitcher, as he limited Carthage to two runs, one earned, on six hits and two walks over nine innings. Michael McGrath earned his second save by working out of trouble in the 10th inning. Danny Dahm (Sr., Morton Grove, Ill./Skokie-Niles West) twirled a gem for the Red Men, limiting the Cardinals to two runs on six hits and a walk over eight innings, while striking out 10 batters. Nic Jensen (2-1) was the losing pitcher.
"North Central's pitchers kept us off-balance all day," admitted Carthage coach Augie Schmidt IV. "I thought we might squeeze out two wins, but we seemed to stop executing in the second game. We got beat by a good team. They are the defending-conference-champions, and we know we have to play well to beat good teams. We might have been lucky to get one out of two. We wasted a good pitching performance from Danny Dahm in the second game. We weren't as sharp as we've been, and we're talented enough to operate that way. We got a rude awakening."