The Carthage College baseball team (2-5, 0-0 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin), ranked 13th in the March 20 National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association/"D3baseball.com" poll, lost its fourth-straight game on Thursday, March 22 with a pair of losses at the Kino Sports Complex in Tucson, Ariz. In the morning, Carthage fell to Carleton College (5-6), 8-6, before losing a nail-biter to No. 9 Eastern Connecticut State University (9-2), 7-6, in the afternoon.
In the loss to Carleton, Carthage broke a scoreless with a two-run single by Tyler Eickmeyer in the fourth inning, and a sacrifice fly by Andrew Arenson in the fifth made it 3-0. Carleton got two runs back in the sixth on RBI-singles by Erik Fabry and Patrick Philley. Carleton tied the game, 3-3, in the seventh on a sacrifice fly by Alex Wirta, and Fabry followed with a three-run homer to left to give the Knights a 6-3 lead. Carlton made it a 8-3 game in the ninth when Jeff Dsida scored from third on a passed ball, and Davis Stillerman followed with an RBI-single. Carthage made things interesting in the bottom of the ninth when Joey Aiello launched a two-out, three-run homer to right to cut the lead to 8-6.
Paul Dimmick was the winning pitcher for the Knights. He went seven innings and allowed three runs on eight hits and two walks. Jon Kleinmeyer (0-1) took the loss and allowed five runs, three earned, on six hits and two walks over six and two-thirds innings, while striking out six batters. Mitch Lochen worked the final two and one-third innings and gave up three runs on three hits. Erik Fabry led Carleton by going two-for-four with four RBI. Tyler Eickmeyer went three-for-five with a double and two RBI for the Red Men, while Joey Aiello went two-for-five with a double, a home runs and three RBI.
Except for the mountains in the background, the Eastern Connecticut State game might have taken place in Grand Chute, Wis., in late-May at the national championship. It was that kind of game, full of post-season-type intensity. Carthage took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on an RBI-grounder off the bat of Joey Aiello. Run-scoring singles by Kyle Pusateri and Tyler Eickmeyer in the second gave the Red Men a 3-0 lead. Eastern Connecticut cut the lead to 3-1 in the bottom of the second when T.J. Larivee tripled off the centerfield screen and scored on a sacrifice fly by Mike Riemer. Carthage extended its lead to 4-1 in the third on a sacrifice fly by Tanner Wensman.
The Warriors tied the game, 4-4, with a three-run fourth inning off starting pitcher Eric Rohe. Danny O'Connell singled in the first run, and with the bases loaded, Mitch Plourde delivered two-run single. Eastern Connecticut re-gained the lead, 6-4, in the sixth. The Warriors loaded the bases on two singles and a walk, and a run scored on a double play. Adam Roderick followed with an RBI-single. The Red Men tied the game again in the seventh, 6-6. With the base loaded, pinch-hitter Eric Barber singled in a run. The bases remained loaded, and Tyler Eickmeyer reached on an infield error to score Tanner Wensman from third. Warriors pitcher Evan Chamberlain then proceeded to strike out Matt Richer, Joey Aiello and Zach Kozlowski in order, all swinging, to end the inning. In the bottom of the seventh, Eastern Connecticut took the lead, to stay, 7-6, on an RBI-single by Danny O'Connell. The Red Men put two runners on base with two outs in the ninth, but Warriors reliever Michael Heppel got Zach Kozlowski on a swinging third strike to end the game.
Evan Chamberlain (1-0), the third-of-four Eastern Connecticut pitchers, picked up the win, with Heppel being credited with his first save. Eric Rohe (Jr., Mundelein, Ill.) pitched the first five and two-thirds innings for Carthage and surrendered six runs on seven hits and four walks. Marc Mantucca (0-2) followed and took the loss. Danny O'Connell went three-for-four with two RBI to lead the Warriors. Tyler Eickmeyer (Sr., Kenosha, Wis./Somers-Shoreland Lutheran) went two-for-six with two RBI to pace the Red Men.
"Eastern Connecticut will probably be the best team we'll see the rest of the year," said a disappointed Augie Schmidt IV afterward. "We saw some great pitching today, but we came out and hit the ball and battled. Eric Rohe pitched a great game, despite the numbers. I've been waiting for us to play a game like this. We went toe to toe with a great team and just came up short. We usually play better against hard throwers, and that's what we saw today. It was intense from the beginning, and they remember us from the national-championship games. They have a great program, and the game was actually really, really fun. I hope we can have that same intensity against all the teams we play. We need to find ways to win. We had a chance to win this game, and you don't get that chances against really good teams like them. We're a little behind the eight-ball right now. We've played fewer games than anyone out here, and it shows. We're making a lot of mistakes, and we need to get caught up. We still think we have a good team, but we need to figure some things out."
On Friday, March 23, the Red Men play a Noon, MST game with Nebraska Wesleyan University. The trip concludes on Saturday, March 24 with a 2 p.m., MST contest against Middlebury College.
Game Note: Carthage last played Eastern Connecticut State on May 25, 2007 and won a15-4 game in the first round of the NCAA Division III Baseball Championship in Grand Chute, Wis.