The Carthage College baseball team (14-15, 4-10) lost both ends of a Tuesday, April 16 doubleheader to College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin-opponent North Park University (16-11, 9-6), 6-2 and 9-0, at Augie Schmidt Field in Kenosha, Wis. The Red Men have lost five-straight games.
North Park took a 1-0 lead in the first inning of the opener when leadoff hitter Jared Cantu doubled and scored on a single by Cullen Gilbertson. Carthage tied the game in the bottom half on a fielder's choice-RBI off the bat if Myles Farley. The Vikings took a 2-1 lead in the third on a sacrifice fly by Ranko Stevanovic.
North Park upped its lead to 4-1 in the sixth on RBI-singles by Justin Woolbright and Brad Maurer. The Red Men made it a 4-2 game in the bottom of the sixth on an RBI-single by Johnny Belskis. The Vikings came back to take a 6-2 in the seventh on a two-run single by Woolbright.
Michael Pritts (1-2) was the winning pitcher and limited the Red Men to a pair of runs on nine hits and walk over eight innings. Ethan Sund pitched the ninth. Chance Roach (2-2) started for Carthage and went the first five and one-third innings and allowed four runs on nine hits and two walks. Daniel Mutter entered the game in the sixth and Owen Reith in the seventh. Carthage's Johnny Belskis went three-for-four with an RBI.
The Vikings jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning of the nightcap on a sacrifice fly by Anthony DiNardo and a bases-loaded walk to Brad Maurer. A sacrifice fly by Cullen Gilbertson in the second made it 3-0. The Vikings scored two more in the fourth to go up, 5-0. Kyle Balash doubled in the first run in the fourth, with a sacrifice fly by Jared Cantu scoring the other. The Vikings added four more runs in the eighth to go up, 9-0.
The Red Men had no answer for Vikings starting pitcher Ethan Sund (4-1), who allowed only a Johnny Belskis double in the fifth inning and a walk to Kyle Engrstom in the sixth. Sund went eight innings, with Matt Pizur pitching the ninth. Dante Guarascio (3-1) started for Carthage and allowed five runs on six hits and four walks over three innings. Pasquale Atteo, Clark Hendricks and Frankie Rios followed.
Carthage opens a three-game series with conference-opponent North Central College (20-7, 10-3) on Friday, April 19 with a Noon doubleheader at Zimmerman Stadium/Alumni Field in Naperville, Ill. The two teams conclude he set with a 1 p.m. single game on Saturday, April 20 at Augie Schmidt Field.
"We're in a little downward spiral," admitted Carthage coach Augie Schmidt IV. "We had some tough games this week against good teams, and in today's second game, we just ran into a lights-out pitcher. We're a little beat up, and we're at the opposite end of our pitching staff. We didn't play very well, and we need to find a way to right this ship. The season is getting away from us, and things have a different feel from a week ago. It's amazing how quick things turn. We just can't seem to find a way to win games. We look like a young, struggling team, and now we have to re-group against a really good North Central team this weekend."