Alex Letto hit two home runs and drove in four, as the Carthage College baseball team (6-7, 0-0 College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin) pummeled Gustavus Adolphus College (2-6), 19-4, on Sunday, March 26 at the Kino Sports Complex in Tucson, Ariz.

Carthage took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on a leadoff triple to dead-centerfield by Drew Korosic, followed by an RBI-grounder off the bat of Jared Knoespel.  After the Gusties tied the game in the bottom half, the Red Men put an eight-spot on the board in the second to take a 9-1 lead.  Alex Letto hit a two-run homer, followed by a two-single by Jared Helmich, a two-run double by Matt Rave and an RBI-single by Letto, as Carthage batted around and sent 13 men to the plate.  An RBI-double by Helmich in the third made it 10-1.  Letto homered again in the fourth, as did Jordan Wiegold, and the Re Men led by 11 runs, 12-1.

An RBI-double by Reed Here and an infield error led to a couple more runs in the fifth and a 14-1 advantage.  After the Gusties scored a single run in the bottom of the fifth, the Red Men added five more runs in the seventh to make it 19-2.  Myles Farley and Nick Pierce hit RBI-singles, Anthony Fortunato drove in two with a triple, with Fortunato subsequently scoring on a dropped outfield fly.  Gustavus Adolphus scored twice in the bottom of the seventh to close out the scoring at 19-4, and the game was called due to a 10-run rule.

Carthage pitcher Dalton Sjong (1-1) worked six strong innings for the win.  Sjong allowed just two runs, one earned, on five hits, three walks and four strikeouts.  Chris Pedrak finished up in the seventh.  Kyle Pinke, the first-of-four Gusties hurlers, took the loss and gave up the first nine runs on seven hits over one and two-thirds innings.  Dalton Sjong gave us six good innings with a lead," said Carthage coach Augie Schmidt IV, and that's something we haven't done on this trip."

The Red Men collected 17 hits, with Alex Letto going three-for-five with two home runs and four RBI.  Drew Korosic went three-for-four and Jared Helmich two-for-five with three RBI.  "We just continued to crush the ball," said Schmidt, "and that's going to be the strength of this team.  I think we're going to be a little shaky at time, defensively, and the pitching might be a little shaky, too.  When you hit like this, it make up for a lot of other areas.  We're happy with this, we got one game left tomorrow, and it's like we're over the hump .  It feels great that we got through this tough, tough part of the schedule.  I think the kids even feel that—it feels invigorating"

Carthage concludes its 12-game trip on Sunday, March 27 by taking on Middlebury College (2-2) in a 1 p.m., MST game, also at the Kino Sports Complex.