The Carthage College baseball team (3-0, 0-0 College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin) completed a season-opening, three-game sweep of Wisconsin-Oshkosh (0-3) on Sunday, March 15 with an 11-9 win over the Titans at Augie Schmidt Field in Kenosha, Wis. The Red Men swept a Saturday, March 14 doubleheader, 4-1 and 6-5.
In Sunday's game, Carthage jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning on a three-run home run by Reed Hero. The Red Men made it 6-0 in the second on an RBI-single by Luc DiMaso and a pair of infield throwing errors by the Titans. Carthage added two runs in the third on a two singles and an outfield error to make it 8-0. UW-Oshkosh got six runs back in the fourth on a four hits, two walks and a costly two-out infield throwing error to cut the lead to 8-6. The Titans took a 9-8 lead in the fifth with three runs scored on a hit, a walk and two infield errors. The Red Men went ahead to stay, 11-9, in the seventh. An RBI-single by Graham Wick tied the game. Zach Wade scored the go-ahead run on a bases-loaded walk to DiMaso, and Wick scored on a bases-loaded walk to Nick Schmdlkofer. Each team committed three errors.
Carthage's Zach Wade (So., Kenosha, Wis./Tremper) went four-for-four with three runs scored. Schmdlkofer and Drew Bailey both had two hits, and Reed Hero drove in three runs. Pitcher Jared Helmich started the game but gave way to Chris Pedrak (Fr., Woodridge, Ill./Downers Grove-South, 1-0) in the fourth inning. Pedrak gave up three runs, just one earned, on three hits and a walk over the final five and one-third innings. Lucas Gregory (0-1), the third-of-five UW-Oshkosh hurlers, took the loss.
"This wasn't the way we wanted to play," admitted Carthage coach Augie Schmidt IV," and we walked way too many guys. We had big lead, and then we couldn't find the plate, and you know that's going to bite you, and it did. It was an early-season game but not a good baseball game. We did find a nice freshman pitcher in Chris Pedrak—he settled in and threw really well. We learned a lot about this team in three days. We have a lot of baseball in a short period of time coming up on this Tucson trip."
Carthage opens an eight-game trip to the Tucson Invitational on Thursday, March 19 with a 7 p.m. game (all times PST) against Gustavus Adolphus College (1-3) at the Kino Sports Complex in Tucson, Ariz. The trip continues with a Noon doubleheader against Hamline University on Friday, March 20, followed by games against Luther College on Saturday, March 21 at 9 a.m., Middlebury College on Sunday, March 22 at 10 a.m., Carleton College on Monday, March 23 at 12:30 p.m., Oberlin College on Tuesday, March 24 at 11 a.m. and Oberlin again on Wednesday, March 25 at 9 a.m.