The Carthage College baseball team (26-10, 14-7 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin), ranked 20th in the May 2 National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association /"D3baseball.com" poll and fourth in the May 5 NCAA Division III Central Region poll, lost its chance to claim a share of the CCIW title on Sunday, May 8 by losing a 5-4 game to No. 26 North Park University (29-10, 14-6 CCIW) at the Holmgren Athletic Center in Chicago. The two teams split a Saturday, May 7 doubleheader. North Park won the opening game, 13-6, but Carthage broke a 2-2 tie in the eighth inning of the nightcap to win by a 3-2 margin.
Meanwhile, Illinois Wesleyan University (25-13, 15-6 CCIW) completed a three-game sweep of North Central College (20-14, 13-8) on Sunday with an 8-2 win over the Cardinals in Naperville, Ill. The Titans swept Saturday's doubleheader, 15-0 and 8-0. With the win on Sunday, Illinois Wesleyan clinched at least a share of the conference title, along with the home field for the Thursday-Saturday, May 12-14 CCIW Baseball Tournament. North Park University will be the second seed in the tournament based on losing two-of-three to Illinois Wesleyan earlier in the year.
The Vikings, however, can claim a share of the title by defeating Augustana College (Ill.) in a Monday, May 9 makeup game in Chicago. Regardless of Monday's outcome, the seeding for the tournament is set with Carthage the third seed and North Central (Ill.) the fourth seed. Carthage will play North Park again on Thursday in a first-round tournament game at Jack Horenberger Field. While the game time has not been set, the Red Men's game with the Vikings will be the second of two games on Thursday. Top-seeded Illinois Wesleyan will play North Central in the first game on Thursday.
On Sunday, North Park jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the opening inning off Carthage pitcher Eric Rohe. Mike Domenick doubled in the first run. Andy Athans followed with an RBI-grounder, and Brad Medina hit a sacrifice fly. The Red Men got on the board in the fourth when Joey Aiello doubled, advanced to third on a fly ball, and scored on a fielding error by Vikings second baseman Eric Sousanes. Carthage narrowed the gap to 3-2 in the seventh on an RBI-single by Kyle Pusateri, but the Red Men ran themselves out of a bigger inning. With runners at first and second and one out, pinch-hitter Tyler Eickmeyer struck out swinging, and Pusateri was caught trying to steal third on the strikeout.
The Red Men took their only lead of the game in the eighth. Billy Herring singled, and Zack Kozlowski and Joey Aiello followed with bunt singles to load the bases. Will Hodges hit into a double play, scoring Herrin from third and advancing Kozlowski to third. Kozlowski then scored on a wild pitch to give Carthage a brief, 4-3 lead. The Vikings came right back with two runs in the bottom of the eighth to reclaim the lead, 5-4. With the bases loaded and one out, Zach Deutscher scored on a fielding error by Carthage shortstop Kyle Pusateri. Trevor Popp followed with an RBI-grounder to drive home the g-ahead run. Merrick McGrady (1-0), the third North Park pitcher, picked up the win by blanking the Red Men over the final two innings. Eric Rohe (Jr., Mundelein, Ill., 5-2) was the losing pitcher. Rohe worked the first seven and one-third innings and allowed all five runs, four earned, on seven hits and no walks. Mitch Lochen (So., Glenview, Ill./Glenbrook South) finished up. Billy Herrin and Joey Aiello had two hits each for Carthage.
"North Park has a good team," said Carthage coach Augie Schmidt IV, "and they do a lot of things well. They're a senior-dominated team, and it shows. Having said that, the best team didn't win this game. We made too many mistakes and shot ourselves in the foot. Some of that was my fault—I didn't do a good job when we had runners on base. I was trying to be aggressive, and I would probably make the same mistakes again. You can't teach an old dog new tricks, I guess. Some of my moves today could easily be second-guessed. Sending the runners on Tyler Eickmeyer's strikeout in the eighth blew up on me. If he takes the pitch, we have the bases loaded with one out. It didn't seem like we were clicking, and maybe their pitching had something to do with that, So, we tip our hats to North Park and get ready for the tournament. This is the 23rd-straight year we've made the CCIW tournament, and that's part of our tradition. We're proud of what we've done so far, and now we get ready for Thursday."
The Red Men were scheduled to play a makeup non-conference game at Aurora University on Monday, May 9, but that contest has been canceled.