The Carthage College baseball team (6-1, 0-0 College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin) defeated Luther College (5-5), 9-3, on Saturday, March 21 at Kino Sports Complex in Tucson, Ariz.
Carthage opened a 1-0 lead in the first inning on an RBI-double by Drew Bailey, but Luther tied the game in the bottom half when a runner scored from third on a balk by Carthage pitcher Josh Daniels. The Red Men went up, 2-1, in the third on another RBI-double by Bailey. Carthage made it a 5-1 game in the fifth on Bailey's third RBI-double of the game, along with an RBI-double by Reed Hero and a run-scoring single off the bat of Jared Helmich. Nick Schmidlkofer's RBI-single in the sixth made it 6-1. After the Norse got a run back in the sixth, the Red Men made it 7-2 in the eighth on an RBI-double by Anthony Fortunato. Carthage plated two more runs in the ninth with an RBI-double by Jared Helmich, the Red Men's eighth two-bagger of the game, along with an RBI-single by Zach Wade.
Pitcher Josh Daniels (Sr., Elk Grove, Ill., 1-0) worked the first eight innings and allowed just two runs, one earned, on five hits and five walks. Colin Dresen pitched the ninth inning. Alex Knop (1-1) took the loss for Luther. Carthage's Drew Bailey (Sr., Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley) went three-for-five with three doubles and three RBI. Reed Hero (So., Frankfort, Ill./Lincoln-Way North) went three-for-five with a double and an RBI, and Jared Knoespel (So., Rockton, Ill./Rockton-Hononegah) had three hits in four trips with four runs scored.
"We faced a really good pitcher today in Alex Knop.," said Carthage coach Augie Schmidt IV, "and he struck a lot of us out. We kept grinding and started to hit some doubles. That was good to see, because he was a quality pitcher with three good pitches. He threw hard with a great splitter. We scored when we could and just played good baseball. Josh Daniel didn't throw at that well early, but he threw great later on. Luther stole a lot of bases on us, which is something else we have to clean up. I really like what we're doing at the plate. This team is young, but they don't have clue about last year, which is a very good thing. They just want to play the game hard and do the right things. So far, this team is a pleasure to be around."
The trip to the Tucson Invitational continues with a 10 a.m. game against Middlebury College Sunday, March 22, followed by Carleton College on Monday, March 23 at 12:30 p.m., Oberlin College on Tuesday, March 24 at 11 a.m. and Oberlin again on Wednesday, March 25 at 9 a.m.