By Carthage Sports Information Director Steve Marovich

Nobody saw this coming in February, not even the head coach, but he Carthage College baseball team (28-13) is going to the NCAA Division III Baseball Championship this week.  The Red Men won the CCIW Baseball Tournament on Sunday, May 10 with a 12-2 decision in eight innings over Illinois Wesleyan University (27-16) at Zimmerman Stadium/Alumni Field in Naperville, Ill.  

With the win, Carthage received the league's automatic qualifier to the NCAA tournament.  The field for the 56-team championship will be announced on www.ncaa.com  around 11 p.m., CDT on Sunday night.  The two nearest regional sites are Waterloo Riverfront Stadium in Waterloo, Iowa, and Copeland Park in La Crosse, Wis., with play beginning on Wednesday, May 13.

The conference-tournament title is the 12th for the Red Men and the first since winning the 2011 tournament in Bloomington, Ill.  The Red Men will be making their 19th NCAA regional appearance this week.

Carthage opened tournament play on Thursday, May 7 with a 3-2 win in 10 innings over top-seeded North Central College (25-15).  Illinois Wesleyan University (25-14) defeated Wheaton College (Ill., 21-20), 7-1, in the other first-round contest.  North Central (26-15) eliminated Wheaton (21-21), 13-1, in a loser's bracket game on Friday morning, May 8.  Carthage edged Illinois Wesleyan (25-15), 3-2, in Friday's second game to advance to the championship round.  Friday's third game between North Central (26-15) and Illinois Wesleyan (25-14) was postponed until Saturday, May 9 at 11 a.m. due to an unfavorable weather forecast.  When that game was played, Illinois Wesleyan (26-14) eliminated North Central (26-16), 6-4, to advance to the championship round.  Carthage lost to Illinois Wesleyan (27-15), 5-1, on Saturday, May 9 in the championship round.

Unlike Saturday's game, when the Red Men were unable to string together any big hits, Carthage jumped on Illinois Wesleyan starting pitcher Louis Acklin and his successor, Matt Hart, for six runs in the second inning.  Matt Rave doubled in the first two runs.  Nick Schmidlkofer followed with an RBI-double and Jared Knoespel an RBI-single.  Graham Wick scored on an infield throwing error, and Zach Wade singled in the sixth run. 

The Titans loaded the bases with nobody out in the fourth and wound up scoring two runs to cut the lead to 6-2.  The Titans had two major threats in the eighth.  The first came with runners at second and third with no outs.  That one ended when Derek Idstein was cut down at the plate on a comebacker back to the mound.  Illinois Wesleyan proceeded to load the bases with two outs before Mentkowski got Gino Cavalieri on fly ball to right to end the inning.

Carthage scored six times In the bottom of the eighth.  After Jared Helmich was walked intentionally to load the bases, Zach Wade hit a roller back to the mound.  Pitcher John Munyon spiked the ball on a throw to the plate, and two runs scored.  Reed Hero followed with a two-run single over the third baseman's head.  Nick Schmidlkofer hit a two-run single for a 12-2 lead, and the game was halted due to a 10-run rule.

Carthage pitcher Luke Mentkowski (Jr., Greenfield, Wis./Whitnall, 4-0), making his first start of the year, threw a gem.  Mentkowski, who entered the game with a 0.00 earned run average over 12 relief appearances and 16 innings, limited Illinois Wesleyan to two runs, one earned, on nine hits and a walk over eight innings.  Louis Acklin (0-5), the first-of-three Titan hurlers, took the loss. 

The Red Men collected 18 hits against those three Illinois Wesleyan pitchers, with Matt Rave and Nick Schmidlkofer collecting three hits each and the latter driving in three runs.

"I don't believe in baseball momentum," said Carthage coach Augie Schmidt IV.  "Every day is a new game, every game is its own entity.  We came out and took the lead, and where was the Illinois Wesleyan momentum?  We swung the bats out of the chute, and when we do that, we're a whole-different team.  Cory Everts made a great decision in starting Luke Mentkowski, and I was smart enough to let him do it.  We pitched backwards and started our stopper, and he goes eight innings.  Illinois Wesleyan threw the kitchen sink at us, but we managed to maintain.  Our kids are starting to learn how tournament baseball should be played, and how the little things matter like getting bunts down.  We've come a long way.  People have been talking a lot about our future, but who knows what might happen next year?  Let's get it right now."