The Carthage College baseball team (24-10, 11-8 College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin) opened a three-game series with CCIW-opponent North Central College (24-13, 15-4 CCIW) on Friday, May 1 with an 8-5 loss at Zimmerman Stadium/Alumni Field in Naperville, Ill. The two teams conclude the series with a Saturday, May 2 doubleheader at Augie Schmidt Field in Kenosha, Wis., beginning at Noon.
With the win, North Central clinched the conference championship, along with the home field and the top seed for next week's CCIW Baseball Tournament. The title is the 11th overall for the Cardinals and their first since 2010. Carthage just needs one win this weekend over North Central to clinch a berth in the conference tournament.
North Central took a 1-0 lead in the second inning on an RBI-single by Chris Hill. The Cardinals made it a 2-0 in the fourth on an RBI-grounder off the bat of Jake Rone. The Red Men tied the game, 2-2, in the seventh on an RBI-double by Matt Rave, followed by an RBI-single by Matt Cmiel. Carthage changed pitchers in the bottom of the seventh, with Chris Pedrak replacing starter Brandon Hrdlicka with two runners on. North Central scored four times in the inning to go up, 6-2, with the big hit a two-run double by Chris Hill to score the go-ahead runs. Carthage's Reed Hero launched a two-run homer in the eighth to cut the lead to 6-4, but North Central scored two in the bottom half to go back up by four, 8-4. Carthage's Jared Helmich singled in a run in the ninth to close out the scoring at 8-5.
Ben Krusen (3-2) was the winning pitcher, and he allowed four runs on 10 hits, two walks and five strikeouts over seven and one-third innings. Brandon Hrdlicka (Jr., Gurnee, Ill./Warren Township, 4-2) took the loss and surrendered four runs on nine hits and two walks over six innings. Graham Wick, Jared Helmich and Reed Hero each had two hits for the Red Men.
"We went with the freshman pitcher in the seventh," said Carthage coach Augie Schmidt IV, "and he's done a great job all year. Unfortunately, he got the ball up, they got a four spot, and it was just one of those days. We're not going to change what we do at this point—it just wasn't his day. Congratulations to North Central on winning the championship, but we still have work left to do. We're throw Jared Helmich and Tim Sulik on Saturday, and we need to win one of those. We don't want to back into the tournament and see if somebody else loses. If you play bad, you lose, and we didn't play well today. Our kids are down. They expected to win all three of these games, and that's good to see. That confidence was something we haven't had the past few years."