The Carthage College baseball team (9-13, 4-6 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin) swept a Saturday, April 13 doubleheader from CCIW-opponent Millikin University (7-14, 1-10 CCIW), 9-1 and 7-3, in at Augie Schmidt Field in Kenosha, Wis.
Carthage took a 1-0 lead the second inning of the opener on an RBI-single by Brian Huntsinger. Millikin scored in the fourth inning to tie the game. Huntsinger drove in another run with a ground ball in the fourth to put the Red Men up, 2-1, and the Big Blue left the bases loaded in the bottom half. Carthage took a 4-1 lead in the fifth on RBI-singles by Kyle Pusateri and Nick Schmidlkofer. The Red Men added two more in the seventh, including an RBI-triple by Matt Richer, to make it a 6-1 contest. Carthage went up, 9-1, in the eighth, scoring the first run when Stevo Kraynak scored on the front end of a double steal and the other two on a two-run homer by Kyle Pusateri.
Jeremy Salzman (Jr., Arlington Heights, Ill./Buffalo Grove, 1-3) was the winning pitcher. Salzman allowed just one run on three hits and four walks over seven innings. Mitch Lochen worked the eighth and ninth innings. Kyle Pusateri (Sr., Schaumburg, Ill.) was three-for-four with three RBI, and Nick Schmidlkofer (So., Wind Lake, Wis./Muskego) went three-for-four with an RBI.
In the nightcap, Millikin grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first inning on a run-scoring single Theo Facer. A two-run double by Brian Ekiss in the third gave the Big Blue a 3-0 edge. Nick Schmidlkofer got Carthage on the board in the fourth with a sacrifice fly. The Red Men tied the game, 3-3, in the fifth on RBI-singles by Mike Gentile and Chris Tydd. Carthage went ahead, 5-3, in the seventh on an RBI-grounder by Brian Huntsinger and a sacrifice fly by Drew Bailey. The Red Men added two additional runs in the eighth for the final, 7-3 margin.
Chris Tydd, Kyle Pusateri and Steve Kraynak each had two hits for Carthage. Starting pitcher Josh Daniels (Jr., Elk Grove, Ill., 2-1) stopped the Big Blue on three runs, two earned, on seven hits and a walk over seven innings, while striking out five batters. Sam Wilhelms (Jr., Fond du Lac, Wis.) blanked Millikin over the final two innings to earn his first save.