The Carthage College baseball team (15-4, 6-2 College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin) lost the rubber game of a three-game series with No. 24 Augustana College (Ill., 19-5, 6-2 CCIW), 7-4, on Saturday, April 4 at Swanson Stadium/Brunner Field in Moline, Ill.  The two teams split a Friday, April 3 doubleheader with the Red Men winning the first game, 5-4, but falling in the nightcap by a 7-3 margin. 

After Carthage's Drew Bailey doubled in a run in the first inning of the series finale, two big Augustana errors led to three more Red Men runs, all unearned, and a quick, 4-0 lead. The Vikings came up with three runs in the third to narrow the gap to 4-3.  John Swiderski had the big hit in the inning, driving in two runs with a single.  Augustana tied the game, 4-4, in the fourth on a sacrifice-fly double play off the bat of Nathan Gray.  The Vikings took their first lead of the game, 5-4, in the sixth when Swiderski scored on an infield grounder off the bat of Kyle Lenihan.  Back-to-back sacrifice flies by Gray and Jeff Fifer in the sixth upped the Augustana lead to 7-4, and that closed out the scoring.

Vikings starting pitcher Walter White (4-0) went the distance and allowed four runs, one earned, on seven hits, one walk and six strikeouts.  Jared Helmich (Jr., Lake Villa, Ill./Fox Lake-Grant Community, 2-1) took the loss and gave up four runs on eight hits and walk over the first four innings.  Chris Pedrak pitched the final four frames.  Carthage's Graham Wick (Jr., Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest Academy) went two-for-four with two RBI.

"We probably asked too much of Jared Helmich," admitted Carthage coach Augie Schmidt IV, "after pitching against North Park on Monday and playing first base all week.  He just didn't have his stuff.  We jumped out early, but we played poorly.  We didn't execute on bunt plays, we didn't catch pop ups, and we just didn't play the way we wanted to play.  Augustana has a nice team, but I'm not convinced they're better than we are.  We have to learn to play better baseball and make better decisions.  It's the first time this year that we sort beat ourselves.  We're young and dumb, and we just have to get better.  Once we do that, I think we'll be alright.  We're in a conference race now, and we haven't mattered in a few years.  We're not there yet, but we have a lot of the pieces.  We have great kids who battle hard, and the next few weeks should be a lot of fun."

Carthage plays host to conference-opponent Wheaton College (Ill.) on Wednesday, April 8 in a 3 p.m. game at Augie Schmidt Field in Kenosha, Wis.