The Carthage College baseball team (14-12, 4-7) was in giving mood on Saturday, April 13, as the Red Men coughed up four leads in one game and one in the second, as Augustana College (Ill., 19-5-1, 8-1) collected a pair of walk-off wins, 15-14 and 8-7, at Swanson Stadium in Moline, Ill. The Vikings scored four runs off the Red Men bullpen in the bottom of the ninth to win a 15-14 slugathon in the first game and four in the bottom of the ninth of the nightcap to win, 8-7.
Carthage took a 1-0 lead in the first inning of the opener on a Vince Schwartz RBI-double. The Red Men scored four times in the second to take a 5-0 lead. Carthage's runs came on an RBI-single by Clayton Taylor, a two-run double by Colton Klein and an RBI-single by Vince Schwartz.
The Vikings sent 10 men to the plate and scored five times in the third. The first two run came in when runners scored from second and third on a grounder off the bat of Jake Huber that second baseman Ryan Kramer was unable to come up with. Huber took second on the play and scored on a double by Ryan Grannemann. Gunnar Haskins walked to load the bases, and a single up the middle by Matt Helms scored two to the tie the game, 5-5.
Back-to-back two run doubles by Johnny Belskis and Ben Levicki in the fourth put the Red Men back up by four, 9-5. In the bottom of the fourth, a two-run single by Haskins brought the Vikings back to within two runs, 9-7. Augustana scored three in the fifth to take a 10-9 lead, but Carthage came back with two in the sixth to go up by a run, 11-10. The Vikings tied the game, 11-11 in the seventh.
In the ninth, an RBI-double by Myles Farley and run-scoring single by Luke Beckmann and a base-loaded walk to Clayton Taylor put Carthage up, 14-11. Carthage closer Brian Polaski entered the game in the bottom of the ninth to protest a three-run lead, but the Vikings came up with four hits and three runs to knot things up at 14-14. Chance Roach relieved Polaski with runners on first and third and two outs. After getting ahead in the count with two strikes, Roach walked his first batter, Sam Beyer. The next batter, Drew Davis, hit a grounder that third baseman Johnny Belskis couldn't handle, and Mitch Owens scored from third with the winning run.
The winning pitcher was John Hayes (5-1), the fourth-of-four Viking hurlers. Brian Polaski (0-1), the fourth-of-five Red Men pitchers was tagged with the loss. Carthage out-hit Augustana, 22-16. Ben Levicki went five-for-six with a double and three RBI. Klein, Schwartz, Belskis and Taylor each had three hits and two RBI.
The Red Men came out swinging in the nightcap, scoring three runs in the first inning on an RBI-single by Luke Beckmann and a two-run single by Ben Levicki. The Vikings got two runs back in the bottom half of the inning. Carthage upped its lead to 4-2 in the third on an RBI-single by Johnny Belskis. Augustana got a run back in the fifth, but Carthage scored three in the sixth to take a 7-3 edge. Ryan Kramer singled in two and Myles Farley another in that sixth frame. Augustana tallied a run in the eighth but left the bases loaded with the score, 7-4.
Kyle Damon, who entered the game with a 10.03 earned run average, was very effective and allowed just four runs, three earned, on eight hits, two walks and five strikeouts over seven innings. Dante Guarascio enter the game in the eighth and worked out of that bases-loaded jam. In the ninth, however, Guarascio walked the bases loaded with one out. Then with two outs, Drew Davis singled in two runs to make it a 7-6 game. The Vikings re-loaded the bases, with Clark Hendricks issuing the final walk in relief of Guarascio. With two outs, Nick Kirk scored on a wild pitch to tie the game, 7-7. Ryan Kairis followed with a single to right to score the winning run, 8-7.
Clark Hendricks (2-2) took the loss, with Bryson Prusator (2-0) picking up the win. Carthage out-hit Augustana, 14-12, in the second game and 36-28 for the day. Clayton Taylor went three-for-five in the nightcap.
"This was terrible, a nightmare," said Carthage coach Augie Schmidt IV. "We couldn't hold a lead in either game, and it was all walks that did us in. To come out here and beat the heck out of someone for five and one-half hours and get two losses is awful. We were the better team the whole damn day, so this is pretty frustrating. I don't have a clue on what we're doing with our late-inning pitching. We're giving everybody a chance. Kyle Damon threw great in the second game, but we can't find anyone to finish a game. I know it's one of those years where you lose a lot of games like these, but this is pretty hard to accept. We played well enough to win two games."
The two teams conclude the three-game set with a 4 p.m. game on Monday, April 15, also at Swanson Stadium.