The Carthage College baseball team (0-1, 0-0 College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin) lost its season-opener on Friday, March 11, 6-4, to Benedictine University (Ill.) at Augie Schmidt Field in Kenosha, Wis. The two team meet up again on Saturday, March 12 in a Noon single contest, also at Augie Schmidt Field.
Benedictine took a 1-0 in the top of the first inning when leadoff hitter Chayancze Stirbis launched the second pitch of the game from starting pitcher Tim Sulik over the leftfield fence for a home run. Carthage scored three times in the second inning on two singles, a catcher's interference call and a balk. The Eagles got a run back in the third to make it 3-2. A two-out throwing error by Red Men third baseman Zach Wade led to three unearned runs in the fourth, giving Benedictine a 6-3 lead. Kyle Bock's two-run homer was the big blow in the inning following the error. Carthage made it a 6-4 game in the bottom of the fourth on a solo homer by Matt Rave.
That score stood up, although the Red Men threatened in the ninth inning. Carthage put a pair of runners on base with one out off Eagles closer Christopher Nesbitt. A.J. Kaprelian flied to right for the second out, and the lefthander Nesbitt got pinch-hitter Jake Erfourth swinging on back-to-back change-ups for the final out.
Joe Palasiewicz (1-0) was the winning pitcher, as he allowed four runs, three earned, on six hits and two walks over six and two-thirds innings. Marty Maves entered the game in the seventh and Nesbitt worked the ninth for the save. Tim Sulik (Jr., Milwaukee, Wis./Pius XI, 0-1) took the loss and surrendered six runs, three earned, on seven hits and two walks over four innings. Luke Mentkowski (Sr., Greenfield, Wis./Whitnall) blanked the Eagles over the last five frames on three hits. Benedictine's Erik Callaghan went three-for-four, while the Red Men's Drew Korosic (Jr., Frankfort, Ill./Lincoln-Way North) had two hits in four trips with an RBI.
"It was a typical first game," said Carthage coach Augie Schmidt IV, "and first games are hard. It wasn't a clean game by any means, and we're just trying to play some clean baseball. If we play clean baseball, we're going to win most of our games this year, but we didn't play clean today, and we got beat. I also didn't like our approach at the plate—we swung too early too many times with nothing to show for it. Now, maybe we can settle down tomorrow with this one out of the way."