The Carthage College baseball team (2-0, 0-0 College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin) opened its season on Saturday, March 14 by sweeping a doubleheader from Wisconsin-Oshkosh (0-2), 4-1 and 6-5, at Augie Schmidt Field in Kenosha, Wis.
Wisconsin-Oshkosh scored a run in the first inning of the opener when Trent Whitcomb walked, went to second on an infield grounder, stole third and scored on a passed ball. Carthage tied the game, 1-1, in the third on an infield single by Nick Schmdlkofer. Carthage broke the tie with three runs in the bottom of the eighth on RBI-doubles by Reed Hero and Jared Helmich and an RBI-single off the bat of Zach Wade.
Carthage pitcher Kyle Cibrario (Jr., Libertyville, Ill.) started game and worked the first five innings, allowing just an unearned run on one hit and three walks. Tim Sulik (So., Milwaukee, Wis./Pius XI, 1-0) took over in the sixth and blanked the Titans on one hit over three innings. Luke Mentkowski (Jr., Greenfield, Wis./Whitnall) pitched the ninth inning to earn the save. Ben Messenger (0-1) took the loss for UW-Oshkosh. Jared Helmich and Zach Wade each had two hits for the Red Men.
UW-Oshkosh took a 1-0 lead in the second inning of the nightcap on an RBI-grounder off the bat of Neal Ori. Carthage took a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the second on an RBI-double by Jared Helmich and a two-run single by Zach Wade. The Titans scored three times in the fifth to chase starting pitcher Josh Daniels out of the game, trailing 4-3. Skyler Bohn's two-run single was the big hit in that inning. Luc DiMaso's RBI-single in the bottom of the fifth tied the game, 4-4. UW-Oshkosh took a 5-4 lead in the sixth on an RBI-single by Jack Paulson. The Red Men re-tied the game, 5-5, in the seventh, thanks to an RBI-single by Nick Schmdlkofer.
In the ninth inning, Carthage's Luc DiMaso led off with single. Schmdlkofer bunter back to the mound, but UW-Oshkosh pitcher Ryan Chancellor hurled the ball into centerfield trying to get DiMaso at second. The Red Men wound up with runners and second and third. After Drew Bailey was walked intentionally to load the bases, Reed Hero, the guy with right name, singled to left to score DiMaso the winning run. Hero went three-for-five with a run scored and the RBI.
Brandon Hrdlicka (Jr., Gurnee, Ill./Warren Township, 1-0) picked up the win by limiting the Titans to one run on three hits and two walks over the final four and one-third innings. The loss went to Ryan Chancellor (0-1).
"Playing a good team like Wisconsin-Oshkosh and getting a couple of wins is good," said Carthage coach Augie Schmidt IV, "but playing at home in March is something special. That's the first time in 27 years I've done that. The new field really helps with that, and not being six games short at the start of the season is huge. It was a typical first game for both teams—a lot of mistakes. Kyle Cibrario pitched well. His back cramped up, and we had to get him out, but Tim Sulik pitched well after that. Our best pitcher, Josh Daniels, had the worst day of all of them, but he won't have many bad days. We have 21 new faces, so this is a whole new team, and this was a good start."