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Contact: Drew Sauer, Assistant Sports Information Director, 630-637-5324

Box Score

May 7, 2015 – Falling just short in a late-inning rally, the North Central College baseball team dropped the opening game of the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) Tournament to Carthage College, 3-2 in 10 innings Thursday afternoon at Zimmerman Stadium.

North Central (25-15) struggled to get anything started offensively early on, as Red Men starter Jared Helmich held the Cardinals hitless through 6 1/3 innings, before Chris Hillbroke up the no-hit bid with a single to center with one-out in the seventh.

Cardinal starter Ben Krusen went stride-for-stride with Helmich through the first six innings, holding the Red Men scoreless, but ran into some trouble in the top of the seventh.  With two-outs and a runner on first, Matt Rave drew a walk followed by a single through the left side by Matt Cmiel, scoring Zach Wade who reached on a hit by pitch earlier in the inning.

Carthage (26-12) added to its lead as Jared Knoespel lined a two-out, RBI single to right center, scoring Rave and giving the Red Men a 2-0 lead.
After Hill broke up the no-hit bid in the seventh, the Cardinal offense finally found its stride as Vito DeRango led off the bottom of the eighth with a single to left.  After Joe Paparonewalked and Bobby Smith singled to load the bases, Hill put the Cardinals on the board with a RBI fielder's choice, cutting the Carthage lead down 2-1.

With runners on first and third and two outs in the inning, Jake Rone stepped to the plate and promptly knotted the score 2-2 with a RBI base hit to center, scoring Paparone.

The Cardinals were in business in the bottom of the ninth, asSam Carius shot a single up the middle, followed by a walk from DeRango and another single off the bat of Sam Klein to load the bases with one out, but Luke Mentkowski induced a strikeout and a pop-up to himself after entering in relief to get Carthage out of the jam.

The Red Men kept the momentum rolling into the top of the tenth as a pair of singles and a walk loaded the bases with one out, chasing Krusen from the contest.  Jordan Van Dyckentered in relief and forced a groundout to the first batter faced, but a slow dribbler to the mound the following batter was mishandled by Van Dyck, allowing the eventual game-winning run to score as the Cardinals failed to rally in the bottom half of the inning.

North Central stranded 13 runners in the contest, including nine over the final four innings, while stranding the bases loaded twice.

Krusen received the loss for North Central, allowing three runs, two earned, over 9 1/3 innings pitched, striking out 11 and walking four.  Krusen also became the program's all-time leader in innings pitched (259.1), passing Chris Pryzdia's mark of 255.2 from 1995-98.

Mentkowski improves to 3-0, earning the victory in relief, tossing 1 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing three hits while striking out one.  Helmich receives the no decision, allowing two earned over 7 1/3 innings, striking out six and walking six.

Rone was the lone Cardinal with multiple hits, finishing 2-for-5 from the dish with a run batted in.  Hill was 1-for-4 with a walk and RBI, while DeRango also finished 1-for-4 with a walk and a run scored.

Knoespel and Drew Bailey led the Carthage attack, each going 2-for-5 from the plate, while Cmiel added a hit and a RBI.

North Central will take on Wheaton College tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. on day two of the tournament, needing a win to stay alive in the double elimination format.  Additional information as well as the link to live in-game statistics is available at the tournament website at cciw.org.