The Carthage College baseball team (11-12, 5-7 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin) continued to crawl back into the CCIW race on Sunday, April 15 with a 15-5 win over CCIW-opponent and No. 34 Illinois Wesleyan University (18-9, 7-5 CCIW) at the Carthage Baseball Field in Kenosha, Wis. The Red Men won the Illinois Wesleyan series after the two teams split a Saturday, April 14 doubleheader.
In the series finale, Illinois Wesleyan scored a run in the first inning when Zach Scott walked, advanced to second on a bunt and scored on a single by Johnathan Erickson. Carthage took a 3-1 lead in the third on a sacrifice fly by Andrew Arenson, and RBI-double by Kyle Pusateri that scored Joey Aiello all the way from first base and an RBI-single by Mike Gentile. A two-run homer by the Titans' Kevin Callahan launched into the rightfield jet stream tied the game, 3-3, in the fourth.
The Red Men went up, 6-3, in the fifth when Mike Gentile hit a bases-loaded RBI-grounder, and pinch-hitter Mike Wasche followed with a two-run single. Carthage broke the game open with a seven-run sixth inning. Andrew Arenson hit three-run homer, followed by an RBI-grounder by Tanner Wensman, a two-run double by Drew Bailey and an RBI-double by Tyler Eickmeyer that made it a 13-3 game. Callahan's second home run of the game, also a two-run shot, made it 13-5 in the top of the seventh. The Red Men scored two in the bottom half to end the game on a 10-run rule, 15-5.
Carthage pounded out 17 hits off four Titan pitchers. Tyler Eickmeyer, Joey Aiello, Mike Gentile and Mike Wasche had three hits each, with Andrew Arenson driving in four runs. Eric Rohe (3-2) was the winning pitcher. Rohe worked the first six innings and allowed three runs on seven hits and five walks. Alex Newberry pitched the seventh inning. IWU starter Joe Sweeney (5-2) took the loss.
"We're in the hunt in the league," said Carthage coach Augie Schmidt IV, "but we really needed to win a series before we could say that. We need to start stringing together some wins in the conference, but we're in a lot better shape today than we were on Friday. Everybody is beating each other up in the league, and maybe we're starting to play our best baseball. We're definitely swinging the bats better, and we're getting quality pitching. I think we're set up to make a run at this thing. Sometimes good teams get off to slow starts. We just need to figure out if we're one of those teams or team that's going to muddle through. The next three weeks will tell the tale."
Carthage travels to Fond du Lac, Wis., on Tuesday, April 17 to play a 3 p.m. doubleheader with Marian University (Wis., 14-10) at Herr-Baker Field.