For the third game in a row, the pitching faltered in the late innings, as the Carthage College baseball team (14-13, 4-8) fell to College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin-opponent Augustana College (Ill., 20-5-1, 9-1), 5-3, on Monday, April 15 at Swanson Stadium/Brunner Field in Moline, Ill. 

With the win, the first-place Vikings swept the three-game series from the Red Men, after taking both ends of a Saturday doubleheader with a pair of walk-off victories, 15-14 and 8-7.  Carthage is now two full games behind sixth-place Illinois Wesleyan University for the final berth in the CCIW Baseball Tournament.

Carthage took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on a fielder's choice grounder off the bat of Vince Schwartz.  Augustana tied the game in the bottom of the first on an RBI-single by Mitch Owens.  Ricky Bergstrom's RBI-single in the second gave the Red Men a 2-1 lead that held up for six innings.

Carthage starting pitcher Jacob Delabio was cruising along until the seventh inning, having only allowed a single run on two hits through the first six frames.  He got the first batter out in the seventh before giving up singles to Drew Davis and Sam Beyer.  Ben Rietz relieved and immediately surrendered an RBI-double to Nick Mosele and an RBI-single to Ryan Kairis.  Joe Atkins took over for Rietz and got an out before giving up a two-run single to Ryan Grannemann that put the Vikings up by three runs, 5-2.  An RBI-single by Johnny Belskis in the eighth brought Carthage to within two runs, 5-3, and that close out the scoring.  The Red Men went out in order in the ninth.

Sam Cregan (4-0) was the winning pitcher and limited the Red Men to three runs on eight hits, one walk and four strikeouts over seven and two-thirds innings.  Josh Chamberlain collected his first save of the year by blanking Carthage over the final inning and third.

Jacob Delabio, despite his best starting effort of the year, fell to 0-5 with the loss.  Delabio allowed three runs, two earned, on four hits, three walks and nine strikeouts over six and one-third innings.  Ben Rietz and Joe Atkins pitched in the seventh inning, and Brian Polaski worked the final inning and a third.  Myles Farley collected three of the Red Men's eight hits in four trips to the plate.

Carthage plays host to conference-opponent North Park University (14-11, 7-6) on Tuesday, April 16 in a 3 p.m. doubleheader at Augie Schmidt Field in Kenosha, Wis.