The Carthage College baseball team (3-5, 0-0 College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin) snapped a four-game losing streak at the Tucson Invitational on Monday, March 21 with a 13-8 win over Buena Vista University (5-2) at the Kino Sports Complex in Tucson, Ariz. The four-game losing streak to start a spring trip was the second-longest in coach Augie Schmidt IV's career, with the 1988 team, his first year coaching, losing its first five in Mississippi before winning a game.
Carthage played a second game on Monday and upended NAIA Hastings College (Neb., 3-20) by an 18-6 margin.
The Buena Vista contest certainly didn't lack for drama. The two starting pitchers, Carthage's Kyle Cibrario and Jake Lewis for Buena Vista, dueled away for a couple of innings before Carthage broke through with three runs in the third. The Red Men strung together four-straight hits, starting with a solo home run to straightaway leftfield by Jared Helmich. Reed Hero and Zach Wade followed with base hits, and Matt Rave drove both of them in with a double of the leftfield fence. Carthage scored two more in the fourth, the first on an infield error by the Beavers and the other on an RBI-single by Hero.
Cibrario was cruising along on a three-hit shutout until the top of the sixth when the senior righty collapsed with a severe cramp in his forearm and left the game. Brandon Hrdlicka replaced him, but Cibrario's condition is not considered serious. "What happened to Kyle Cibrario was a damn shame," said Carthage coach Augie Schmidt IV, "since he was throwing the best game, by far, that he's ever thrown in a Carthage uniform against a really good team. He was sticking it to them. It was a scary situation, but he's fine, and he might even be able to pitch again on this trip."
In the seventh, Hrdlicka loaded the bases on two singles and a walk, and Noah Paper drove in two with a double. Following the double, Carthage catcher A.J. Kaprelian was ejected by home plate umpire John Anderson for an ongoing discussion regarding balls and strikes, and Anderson proceeded to toss coach Augie Schmidt IV, who came out of the dugout to protest the ejection. Sean Hannigan replaced Hrdlicka, and two runs scored on an infield grounder and a throwing error by second baseman Matt Rave. Tanner Truesdell followed with a sacrifice fly, and the Red Men's lead shriveled to 9-5.
The Red Men upped their lead to 13-5 with a four-run eighth inning. Anthony Fortunato and Matt Rave each hit two-run doubles in the inning. As the game moved into the bottom of the ninth and its third hour, the Beavers weren't quite done. Hannigan loaded the bases on a walk and two hit batters. Cam Johnson hit a sacrifice fly before Hannigan issued another free pass to re-load the bases. Assistant coach John Lequia replaced Hannigan with Chris Pedrak, who proceeded to walk Devin Wagenman to force in a run. The next batter, Kolby Hilgenberg, hit a sharp grounder that Carthage shortstop Myles Farley was unable to get a handle on, scoring another run, and the Red Men lead was down to 13-8. Fortunately, Porter Sartor proceeded to hit into a game-ending double play, and Carthage hung on for the 13-8 win.
Kyle Cibrario (1-0) was the winning pitcher, and he allowed no runs on three hits, four walks and five strikeouts over five innings. Jake Lewis, the first-of-five Buena Vista pitchers, took the loss. Matt Rave led the Red Men's 16-hit attack by going three-for-five with three doubles and five RBI. Zach Wade went four-for-six, Jared Helmich two-for-six with three RBI and Reed Hero three-for-five with an RBI.
Carthage came out swinging in the Hastings game. The Red Men opened the contest with six-straight hits and the first seven batters reaching base. Jared Helmich hit a two-run double in the inning, followed by two-run homer by Reed Hero and fielder's choice RBI off the bat of Brandon Duckman for a quick 5-0 lead. Hastings got a run back in the bottom half off starting pitcher Joe Nelson. The Red Men added three runs in the fifth and one in the sixth for a 9-1 lead. Hastings scored five times in the sixth to cut the lead to 9-6 and chasing Nelson from the game.
The Red Men sent 14 men to the plate and put up a nine spot in the seventh to take an 18-6 lead, with a two-run stand-up triple by Reed Hero the big hit. Hastings failed to score in the bottom half, and the game was halted after seven innings due to a 10-run rule. Joe Nelson (1-0) was the winning pitcher despite allowing five runs on five hits and seven walks over five innings. Ken Michalowski worked the sixth inning and outfielder Luc DiMaso the seventh. Jared Helmich led the 21-hit Red Men attack by going four-for-five with two RBI. Jordan Wiegold also went four-for-five, with Reed Hero going three-for-four with four RBI. For the day, Hero had six hits in nine trips to the plate with five RBI.
Carthage takes a day off on Tuesday, March 22 before resuming the trip on Wednesday, March 23 with an 11 a.m., MST game versus Colby College.
"It was one of those days where, the way things have gone, you're not sure you even want to come the park," said Schmidt. "We've been struggling, but we hit the tar out of the ball against Buena Vista, which might be the best team down here. That just continued into the second game. You never know about this game. The hitting gave our pitchers some breathing room. The middle of our order really did a great job today. If there was ever a team that needed a day like today, it's this one. Now we have a day off to reload when we play again on Wednesday."