By Steve Marovich, Athletics Staff Writer/2022 Baseball Contact
The Carthage College baseball team (5-15, 0-3 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin) lost to conference-opponent Augustana College (Ill., 16-5, 2-2), 16-3, on Tuesday, April 5 at Swanson Stadium/Brunner Field in Moline, Ill.
The loss was the fourth in a row for the Firebirds, their third four-game losing streak of the year. Carthage has given up 49 runs in its last three games.
Carthage took a 1-0 lead in the second inning on an RBI-double by Chase Gibson. Augustana took a 4-1 lead in the third, taking advantage of three Firebird errors. The first run of the inning scored on an error by Firebirds pitcher Nick Hamilton, the second on wild pitch, the third on an infield single and throwing error by second baseman Kody Krekling and the fourth on an error by third baseman Matt Felber.
Carthage cut the lead to 4-2 in the fourth on a sacrifice fly by Felber, but 10 runs in the bottom half ballooned the Vikings' lead to 14-2. A sacrifice fly by Brett Benedetti scored the first run of the inning, followed by a two-run single by Alec McGinnis, a two-run double by Zachary Vrbanic, a two-run single by Matt Ozanic and a three-run triple by Benedetti in his second plate appearance of the inning.
Run-scoring singles by Vrbanic and Ozanic in the fifth upped Augustana's lead to 16-2. Nick Caruso's RBI-single in the sixth and P.J. Moser's solo home run in the seventh closed out the scoring at 16-4. The game was called after seven innings on account of a 10-run rule.
Augustana Brett Benedetti went three-for-five with four RBI, while Colton Klein and Chase Gibson each had two hits for Carthage.
Nathaniel Sammer (1-1) was the winning pitcher for the Vikings. Sammer allowed just two runs on five hits and a walk over the first five innings. Carthage starting pitcher Nick Hamilton (0-5) surrendered the first eight runs, only four earned, on three hits and five walks over three and one-third innings. Kyle McKinnon relieved in the fourth inning, as did Dante Guarascio. Matt Willett, coming back from shoulder surgery, made his first game appearance since March 12, 2020, and pitched a scoreless sixth inning. "Matt threw good," said Carthage coach Augie Schmidt IV, "and that was a positive today."
"Otherwise, it was more of the same," admitted Schmidt. "Augustana scored 16 runs on nine hits, and at one point, they scored four times without hitting the ball out of the infield. It should have been a good game, and this is really frustrating. We just keep beating ourselves with walks, hit batters and errors, and we do the same bad things over and over again. If we can clean it up, we can compete, but we're not going to compete in this league until we do clean things up. We have to figure things out and learn how to play a clean game, win or lose."
Carthage plays host to CCIW-opponent Carroll University in a Saturday, April 9 doubleheader at Augie Schmidt Field, beginning at Noon.