The Carthage College baseball team (3-2) lost to Bethany Lutheran College (1-6), 4-3, on Thursday, March 12 at the Kino Sports Complex in Tucson, Ariz. The game was the fifth-of-eight games for the Red Men at the Tucson Invitational.
Carthage took a 2-0 lead in the first inning on back-to-back RBI-singles by Bryce and Austin Prybylinski. Bethany Lutheran got a run back in the fourth to make it a 2-1 game. The Red Men had a great chance to pad their lead in the sixth, putting runners on second and third with nobody out, but a strikeout and an inning-ending double play killed the rally.
The failure to score in the top of the sixth came back to haunt Carthage in the bottom half, as the Vikings scored twice to take a 3-2 lead. Ross Beumer singled in the tying run, with Kaylan Legred singling in the go-ahead run.
The Red Men tied the contest, 3-3, in the eighth on a two-out, RBI-single by Brandon Hanik. Bethany Lutheran won the game in the bottom of the ninth. Jake LaBerge led off with a single. Conner Side pinch ran and moved up to second base on a sacrifice bunt. With two outs, Side stole third and then scored on a bunt single by Alec Gratz. "Gratz made a great bunt with a guy on third and two outs," said Carthage coach Augie Schmidt IV. "What are you going to do—it was a perfect bunt."
Carthage pitcher Matt Willett started the game and worked the first five inning, allowing one run on five hits and three walks, while striking out seven batters. Kyle McKinnon (0-1) took over in the sixth and Nate Odahl in the ninth. Beau Babcock (1-0), the fifth-of-five Viking hurdlers, picked up the win. Austin Prybylinski and Johnny Belskis each had two hits for the Red Men.
"We left guys on base all day," admitted Schmidt. "We had guys on third with less than two outs three times and didn't score and didn't even put the ball in play. That was the game. When you leave a lot of guys on base, it usually comes back to haunt you. We sort of slept-walked through this one, although the pitching was good. Matt Willett threw well, Kyle McKinnon threw well, and Nate Odahl was throwing hard at the end."
Schedule Notes: Carthage was scheduled to play Gustavus Adolphus College on Friday, March 13, but that contest was canceled due wet field conditions. The Red Men were also scheduled to play Buena Vista University on Saturday, March 14, but that game fell victim to an American Rivers Conference decision to cancel all spring sports, effective March 13, due to the coronavirus pandemic. Carthage's Sunday, March 15 game versus Augsburg University is off the schedule following an Augsburg announcement that its spring baseball trip was canceled, also due to the coronavirus pandemic. For the moment, the March 12 Bethany Lutheran contest stands as the last game for the Red Men, who will return to campus on Saturday, March 14. Carthage has suspended all of its spring-sports programs, effective March 16 and running thru April 13.