Not a good start to a spring trip.  The Carthage College baseball team (1-3) opened play in the Tucson Invitational on Friday, March 18 by losing both ends of a doubleheader to Hamline University (4-2), 5-0 and 7-4, at the Kino Sports Complex in Tucson, Ariz.

In the opening game, Hamline starting pitcher Alex Bauermeister (1-0) stifled Carthage on two hits, two walks and 11 strikeouts in the seven-inning contest.   "You got to tip your hat to that guy," admitted Carthage coach Augie Schmidt IV.  "He was on top of us all day, and we just couldn't put the ball in play.  That was a rough first game—we had a rough time with him."  The Fighting Pipers scored two runs in the third, two in the fourth and one in the sixth off Red Men hurler Luke Mentkowski (Sr., Greenfield, Wis./Whitnall, 0-1).  Mentkowski surrendered five runs on 12 hits over six innings.  Hamline's Dan Moro went three-for-four with two runs scored and two RBI.

In the nightcap, the Red Men took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on a rocket of an RBI-double off the bat of Jared Helmich.  Hamline scored four times in the third to take a 4-1 lead, three of those runs courtesy of a bases-loaded double by Mitch Benson off starting pitcher Helmich.  Carthage got a run back in the bottom of the third on a solo home run by Helmich, well over the leftfield fence. 

Carthage tied the game, 4-4, in the fourth on a two-run single by Helmich.  The Fighting Pipers broke the tie with two runs in the sixth off reliever C.J. Casey.  With the bases loaded, Casey hit Tyler Summers with a pitch to force in the go-ahead run,  and Nick Kukurich singled in the second run of the inning.  Hamline made it a 7-4 game in the top of the seventh on a run-scoring single by Collin Olstad.  Carthage loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the seventh, but Jordan Wiegold struck out swinging, and Ryan Rodgers grounded to short to end the game.  "The second game was whole other story," said Schmidt.  "We played terrible, we pitched bad, and we didn't swing the bats very well.  I was disappointed with the overall performance today.  We got beat twice by a good team, but we'll figure things out."

Aaron Stoneburg (1-0), the second-of-three Hamline hurlers, picked up the win with three innings of scoreless relief.  Sam Petrick got the final two outs for the save.  Jared Helmich (Sr., Lake Villa, Ill./Fox Lake-Grant Community) gave up the first four runs on three hits and four walks over four innings.  The senior worked out of bases-loaded situations in both the first and second innings before giving up the four runs in the third.  C.J. Casey (0-1) surrendered the two runs in the sixth for the loss, with Colin Dresen working the seventh inning.  Helmich went three-for-four with four RBI.

Carthage takes on George Fox University (13-8) on Saturday, March 19 in a 10 a.m., MST game.