The Carthage College baseball team (7-4) wrapped up an 11-game, 12-day spring trip to the Tucson Invitational on Monday, March 11 with a 14-8 win over Wesleyan University (Conn.). The Red Men won the final three games of this year's trip.
Wesleyan took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on an RBI-single by Andrew Kauf. Carthage came right back with four runs in the bottom half on RBI-singles by Luke Beckmann, Vince Schwartz and Myles Farley and an RBI-double off the bat of Clayton Taylor. An RBI-double by Farley in the second inning made it a 5-1 game.
A three-run homer by Kauf in the third inning shaved Carthage's lead to 5-4. The Red Men made it 6-4 in the bottom of the third on a sacrifice fly by Beckmann. A two-run homer for Farley in the fourth upped the lead to 8-4. In the fifth, Colton Klein drilled an RBI-single to make it 9-4. Wesleyan got a run back in the sixth to turn it into a 9-5 contest. An RBI-triple by Belskis in the seventh made it 10-5, but the Cardinals scored two in eighth on a two-run double by Ryan Earle, cutting the lead 10-7.
Carthage scored four times in the eighth to increase its lead to 14-7. The Red Men scored on an RBI-double by Ricky Bergstrom, a run-scoring single by Kyle Engstrom, an RBI-single by Klein and a sacrifice fly by Beckmann, Wesleyan scored a run in the ninth to close out the scoring at 14-8.
The Red Men collected 19 hits, with hitting-machine Colton Klein getting five of those in five trips to the plate, including his eighth double, along with three runs scored and two RBI. Klein is now hitting an astounding .633 (31-for-49) with eight doubles, 14 RBI and three stolen bases. "I honestly haven't seen anything like what Colton Klein has done this past week," admitted Carthage coach Augie Schmidt IV. "He's been the talk of this tournament, and he's been intentionally walked three or four times from the leadoff spot. He's hit everything—righties, lefties, submariners—it doesn't matter. He's also made about six diving catches, so it's been really fun to watch. He had a special trip, and hopefully, we can keep him going."
Farley went three-for-six with two runs scored, a double, a home run and four RBI. Schwartz, Clayton Taylor, Bergstrom and Engstrom each had two hits, while Beckmann drove in three runs.
Pitcher Dante Guarascio started the game and allowed four runs, three earned, on seven hits, a walk and four strikeouts over four innings. Chance Roach (1-0) worked the fifth and sixth innings and picked up the win by limiting Wesleyan to one run on three hits and a walk. Brandon Hanik entered in the seventh, with Brian Polaski taking over with two outs in the eighth. Polaski allowed an unearned run in the ninth to pick up his second save. Kelvin Sosa (0-1) started for the Cardinals and surrendered the first eight runs on 11 hits and two walks.
"We hit the ball well again today against some pretty good pitching," said Schmidt. Wesleyan kept bringing in good arms, but we were able to extend the lead by getting one here and one there. That proved to be the difference, because today was more like a typical college baseball game. Our pitchers did a pretty good job, particularly the relievers."
Coach Schmidt had hoped to take his team to Port Charlotte, Fla., this coming weekend for three games, but that trip fell through. Instead, Carthage takes the next 12 days off before playing its home opener on Saturday, March 23 with Noon doubleheader against non-conference opponent Defiance College at Augie Schmidt Field.
"We need some time off," said Schmidt, "because we played 11 games in 12 days. Hardly any school in the country does what we do in terms of how many games we play in Tucson. Some guys need the time off, but it's our job to keep everyone ready to go. We learned a lot about this team this past week, and we know what we need to work on."