The Carthage College baseball team (18-6, 8-4 College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin) won a Tuesday, April 14 non-conference game from Rockford University (13-13), 13-6, at Augie Schmidt Field in Kenosha, Wis. 

Carthage jumped out to 3-0 lead in the first inning on a two-run single by Drew Bailey and an BBI-grounder off the bat of Jared Helmich.  The Red Men made it a 5-0 game in the third on a two-run homer by Matt Rave.  Carthage scored four times in the fifth to up its lead to 9-0.   Matt Rave and Matt Cmiel hit RBI-singles in the inning, and Nick Schmidlkofer connected on a two-run single.  The Red Men added a run the seventh to make it 10-0.  Since the two coaches did not agree to a 10-run rule, the game continued, and Rockford cut the lead to 10-4 with four runs in the seventh.

The lack of a 10-run rule was just what Carthage's Jared Helmich (Jr., Lake Villa, Ill./Fox Lake-Grant Community) needed to extend his hitting streak to 24 games, which he did with a sharp single to center to lead off the eighth inning.  Helmich's 24-game streak is tied with Tyler Eickmeyer for the third-best in Carthage history, trailing Glen Braun (26 games in 1999) and Justin Hallock (25 games in 2001).

The Red Men tacked on three more runs in the eighth to make it 13-4 game.  Matt Cmiel and Jared Knoespel both singled in runs in the eighth, before the Regents closed out the scoring with two runs in the ninth for the 13-6 final.

Brandon Hrdlicka (Jr., Gurnee, Ill./Warren Township, 4-1) was the winning pitcher and blanked the Regents to four hits and three walks over seven innings, while striking out six.  Tyler Joyce (0-3) took the loss.  Jared Knoespel (So., Rockton, Ill./Rockton-Hononegah) led the Red Men's 17-hit attack by going four-for-five.  Matt Cmiel (So., Naperville, Ill./Central) went three-for-five with two RBI.  Drew Bailey (Sr., Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley) and Matt Rave (So., Bloomington, Ill./Central Catholic) each drove in three runs.

Carthage plays host to the University of Chicago on Wednesday, April 15 in a 4 p.m. game, also at Augie Schmidt Field.