May 5, 2021 – Completing the four-game season sweep of Carthage College, the North Central College baseball team never trailed in the four games this season, rolling to a 8-2 win on Wednesday inside Zimmerman Stadium.

The four-game sweep is the third of the season over a College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) opponent this season, as the Cardinals outscored the Firebirds, 27-2 over the four game series.

Plating a run in each of the first two innings, Luke Lehnen walked to lead off the bottom half of the first, advanced to second on a groundout, third on a wild pitch and scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Rob Marinec to take a 1-0 lead without recording a hit.

In the bottom of the second, Jared Wojcik doubled to left field with one out in the inning and scored shortly after on a Joe Rizzo RBI-single to right to increase the lead 2-0.

With just nine innings in relief entering the contest, Nicholas Rietz made his first start of the season on the mound and was fantastic over his 4 1/3 innings, allowing just one run on three hits while striking out five.

The lone run Rietz allowed came in the top of the fifth, but Tyler Jones entered from the bullpen to induce a pop-up and a flyout to get the Cardinals out of the jam without further damage.

The offense then took that run right back in the bottom half of the fifth, as Marinec lined a missile of a homerun over the left field fence, a two-run shot to push the North Central lead to 4-1.

After the Firebirds pulled to within two runs of the lead with a run in the top of the seventh, the Cardinals put up a four-spot in the bottom half to put the game out of reach.  All four runs were scored with two outs in the inning, as the first two batters were retired before Lehnen legged out an infield single and Dom Listi walked to start the rally.

Following a Carthage pitching change, Marinec was hit by a pitch to load the bases, before Justin Rios drew a walk to drive in Lehnen.  After a Carthage error extended the inning and allowed the second run to score, the Firebirds gifted the Cardinals two more runs as back-to-back runners scored on wild pitches to extend the lead 8-2.

Five Cardinal pitchers combined to allow just one earned run on the afternoon, as Nolan Shannon allowed just one walk over his two innings and Patrick Schaefer closed the door in the ninth with a 1-2-3 inning.  Jones earned the win to improve to 2-0 on the season, allowing just one hit and an unearned run over his 1 2/3 innings with three punch outs.

Marinec finished 2-for-3 with his fifth homerun of the season, to go along with a hit by pitch, sacrifice fly, three RBI and two runs scored.  Wojcik reached base safely in all four plate appearances, going 2-for-2 with a pair of walks and a run scored, while Lehnen was 2-for-3 with two walks and two runs scored.

North Central (27-6, 21-4 CCIW) closes out the current four-game homestand on Friday, May 7, hosting Illinois Wesleyan University with first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m.