The Carthage College baseball team (16-19, 6-14) opened a three-game series with College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin-opponent Carroll University (Wis., 14-20, 6-12) on Friday, April 26 by splitting a doubleheader with a the Pioneers at Augie Schmidt Field in Kenosha, Wis.  Carthage won the opening game, 5-2, but lost the nightcap, 7-6.

Carthage broke a scoreless tie in the fifth inning of the opener when Kyle Engstrom tripled and subsequently scored on the front end of a double play.  Carroll tied the game in the sixth on an RBI-single by Matthew Putnam.  The Pioneers took a 2-1 lead in the seventh on an RBI-single by Sam Harmeyer.  The Red Men scored four times in the eighth.  Clayton Taylor hit an RBI-double.  Carthage proceeded to load the bases, and Kyle Engstrom delivered an RBI-single.  Colton Klein followed with a two-run single, and Carthage led, 5-2.

That was more than support for starting pitcher Matt Willett (4-1).  Willett limited the Pioneers to two runs on seven hits, two walks and five strikeouts.  Chance Roach took over in the ninth and gave up a leadoff double before retiring the next three batters for his first save of the year.  Curtis Sheahan (1-5), the second-of-four Pioneer hurlers, took the loss.  The Red Men collected 11 hits, with Colton Klein, Johnny Belskis, Clayton Taylor and Kyle Engstrom getting two hits each.

In the nightcap, Vince Schwartz doubled in a run in the first to give Carthage an early, 1-0 lead.  Carroll came back with single runs in both the second and third frames to go up, 2-1.  Kyle Engstrom's two-run double in the fourth put the Red Men back up by a run, 3-2.  The Pioneers scored a run in the fifth to tie the game, 3-3 and two runs in the seventh to take a 5-3 lead.  Carthage came right back to score three times in the bottom half of the seventh to regain the lead, 6-5.  Johnny Belskis hit an RBI-single in the inning.  Vince Schwartz followed with an RBI-double to score Belskis all the way from first, and Clayton Taylor doubled in Schwartz.

In the top of the ninth, Carthage coach Augie Schmidt IV brought in relief pitcher Brandon Hanik to protect the one-run lead.  Hanik loaded the bases on a single and a pair of walks with one out.  After getting T.J. Pfaffle on a strikeout, Matthew Putnam hit a two-run single to give the Pioneers a 7-6 lead.  The Red Men went out in order in the bottom of the ninth.

Zach Tuss (1-0), the third-of-three Carroll pitchers, picked up the win by blanking the Red Men on no hits, no walks and four strikeouts over the final two and one-third innings.  Brandon Hanik (1-2) was the losing pitcher.  Pitcher Pasquale Atteo started the game for Carthage and left with a 3-3 tie after surrendering 11 hits and no walks over the first six innings.  Kyle Damon took in the seventh.  The Pioneers out-hit the Red Men, 15-11.  Carthage's Vince Schwartz went three-for-four with two doubles and two RBI.

"They were both good games," said Schmidt, "but we're snake bit.  We were a strike away from winning the second game, and the next thing you know, we lost.  That's happened a lot this year.  It's a like a deer in the headlights late in the game.  We battled, and we played well enough to win that second game.  I don't have many answers.  We really need someone to come out of the bullpen and not walk people.  We give everybody everything, and then it all it takes is one bloop hit to lose a game.  We thought we might be over the hump, but this was crushing."

The two teams are scheduled to conclude the series with a 1 p.m. single game on Sunday, April 28 at Frame Park in Waukesha, Wis. The weather forecast for Saturday and Sunday, however, is not promising, with the possibility of two-to-six inches of snow falling between Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning.