The Carthage College baseball team (10-14, 5-7 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin) lost to CCIW-opponent North Park University (15-12, 8-4 CCIW), 10-7, on Monday, April 15 at the Holmgren Athletic Complex. The contest with the Vikings was a makeup from a game rained out on April 10. North Park won the series after splitting an April 2 doubleheader at Augie Schmidt Field.
Carthage took a 1-0 lead in the second inning on a solo home run by Marc Mantucca. The Red Men went up, 3-0, in the third on an RBI-single by Mantucca and an RBI-double by Nick Schmidlkofer. A two-run homer by Mike Kane in the North Park fourth inning, along with a an RBI-double by Kyle Williams, tied the game at 3-3.
The Vikings broke the tie and broke the game open with a six-run fifth inning to take a 9-3 lead. Kane started the rally with a two-run double, and Williams followed with a two-run homer. Joe Belmonte capped the inning with a two-run single off Jake Jewell, who replaced starter Raymond Wojciechowski.
The Red Men came right back with a four-run seventh inning and trailed, 9-7, after Schmidlkofer and Mantucca both launched two-run homers, Mantucca's second blast of the game. North Park added a run in the eighth to make it 10-7.
Raymond Wojciechowski (Fr., Spring Grove, Ill./Richmond-Burton, 0-2) took the loss and gave up the first eight runs on nine hits and a walk over four and two-thirds innings. Jason Meger (2-3), the second-of-three Vikings hurlers, was the winning pitcher with John Nemeck collecting his second save. Marc Mantucca (Jr., Naperville, Ill./Central, went three-for-four with two home runs and four RBI, and Nick Schmidlkofer (So., Wind Lake, Wis./Muskego) went three-for-five with three RBI.
Carthage plays host to Lakeland College on Tuesday, April 16 in a 3 p.m. doubleheader at Augie Schmidt Field in Kenosha, Wis. The Lakeland set was originally scheduled for Muskie Field in Howards Grove, Wis., but that field is still snow-covered.