By Steve Marovich, Athletics Staff Writer/2022 Baseball Contact
The Carthage College baseball team (6-17, 1-5 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin) lost to conference-opponent Illinois Wesleyan University (13-9, 4-1), 10-6, on Sunday, April 10 at Jack Horenberger Field in Bloomington, Ill. Sunday's game was the completion of doubleheader originally scheduled for April 2.
The Titans broke a scoreless tie with a four-run third inning. Dom DiLello singled in the first two runs, with Ethan Burgh driving in two more with a single. Carthage tied the game, 4-4, with four runs in the fifth. The first run scored on a balk. Austin Prybylinski doubled in a run, followed by a Bryce Prybylinski RBI-single and a run-scoring single by Matt Felber.
Illinois Wesleyan re-gained the lead, 5-4, in the sixth when Carthage right fielder Ryan DiGrazia dropped a fly ball, allowing Jack Schneider to score from third. Jacob Cyrus' two-run single in the seventh upped the Illinois Wesleyan lead to 7-4. The Firebirds cut the lead to 7-6 in the eighth on a bases-loaded walk to Bryce Prybylinski and a sacrifice fly by Austin Prybylinski.
Illinois Wesleyan came back with three more runs in the bottom of the eighth to close out the scoring at 10-6. DiLello hit a solo homer in the eighth, followed by a Burgh RBI-grounder and a bases-loaded hit batter issued by Carthage pitcher James Lindenmuth.
The winning pitcher was Jay Lemenager (2-1), the second-of-three Titan hurlers. Lukas Wenz pitched the final inning and two-thirds for his first save. Pitcher Matt Willett, after two years off with a shoulder injury, started for Carthage and made his first appearance since March 12, 2020. Willett, who did not play in 2021, went the first two and two-thirds innings and gave up four runs. Nick Hamilton (0-6) entered the game in the third, Chance Roach in the eighth and Lindenmuth in the ninth. Cody Tostrud and Bryce Prybylinski each had two hits for the Firebirds.
"Matt Willett threw good," said Carthage coach Augie Schmidt IV, "so that was a plus. We fell behind to a good Illinois Wesleyan pitcher, but we came back to tie the game. Then, we don't throw enough strikes, and we made that crucial fielding mistake in the outfield. We're losing because of what we do to ourselves. This should have been a better game than it was. We're flirting with playing good baseball."
Carthage travels to Chicago on Tuesday, April 12 to play CCIW-opponent North Park University (8-14, 2-2) in a 4 p.m. game the Holmgren Athletic Complex. Tuesday's game, originally scheduled for Wednesday, April 13, was moved up a day due to an unfavorable weather forecast for Wednesday.