The Carthage College baseball team (10-9, 2-4) out-hit Wheaton College (Ill., 13-6, 3-2), 27-24, as the Red Men managed a split of a Tuesday, April 2 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin doubleheader at Lee Pfund Stadium in Carol Stream, Ill. Wheaton won the first game, 9-8, in 10 innings, but the Carthage took the nightcap, 10-7.
Wheaton took a 2-0 lead in the first inning of the opener. Carthage got a run back in the second on a solo home run by Ben Levicki, and the Red Men took a 3-2 lead in the third on a two-run homer by Colton Klein. A solo homer by Luke Beckmann in the fifth made it 4-2. The Thunder scored a run in the fifth and two in the sixth to take a 5-4 lead. A three-run seventh inning upped Wheaton's lead to 8-4.
The Red Men scored four times in the top of the ninth to tie the game, 8-8. Klein singled in the first run of the inning, Ryan Kramer the second run with a single, Cody Phelps the third, also with a single, and Myles Farley the game-tying run with a single.
The Thunder did not score in the bottom of the ninth, and the game went to extra innings. The Red Men went out in order in the top of the 10th inning. In the bottom half, with Carthage's Clark Hendricks on the mound, Wheaton's Sam Reichert and Mathias Haggerty connected on back-to-back ground-rule doubles, Haggerty's scoring Reichert for the game-winning run and a 9-8 Thunder victory.
Caleb Selk (2-1), the third-of-three Thunder hurlers, picked up the win by blanking the Red Men on two hits over the final one and two-thirds innings. Clark Hendricks, also the third-of-three Red Men pitchers, took the loss.
Carthage actually out-hit Wheaton in the opener, 15-12. Cody Phelps went four-for-five with an RBI, while Colton Klein went two-for-five with two runs scored, a home run and three RBI.
In the nightcap, Wheaton broke a scoreless tie with a three-run fourth inning. Carthage got two runs back in the sixth on RBI-singles by Ryan Kramer and Vince Schwartz. The Red Men scored six times in the seventh to take an 8-3 lead. Kramer forced in the first run with a bases-loaded walk. Cody Phelps drove in two with a single, Schwartz one with a single, Cody Phelps scored on a passed ball, and Myles Farley drove in the sixth run of the inning with a sacrifice fly.
The Thunder scored a run in the seventh and two in the eighth to cut the Carthage lead to 8-6. The Red Men added two runs in the ninth on RBI-singles by Phelps and Farley. In the bottom of the ninth, the Thunder scored a run off closer Brian Polaski, but the big righty held on the nail down the 10-7 victory.
Dante Guarascio (2-0) was the winning pitcher for Carthage. Guarascio gave up six runs, all earned, on 10 hits, three walks and six strikeouts over eight innings. Cody Phelps led Carthage's 12-hit attack by going three-for-five with two runs scored and three RBI, while Johnny Belskis went three-for-four.
Carthage plays host the conference-opponent Millikin University in a three-game home series this weekend at Augie Schmidt Field in Kenosha, Wis.. The two teams play a Saturday, April 6 doubleheader at 1 p.m., followed by a single game on Sunday, April 7 at Noon.