By Steve Marovich, Athletics Staff Writer/2022 Baseball Contact

The Carthage College baseball team (3-5) opened an eight-day, seven-game spring trip to the Tucson Invitational on Saturday, March 12 with an 11-2 loss to No. 24 Chapman University (8-4) at the Kino Sports Complex in Tucson, Ariz.

Chapman jumped on Carthage starting pitcher Dante Guarascio (1-2) with a four spot on four hits in the opening inning.  The Panthers added two more in the second on a two-run double by Davis Mielwocki.  The Firebirds picked up a run in the fifth on an RBI-double by Cody Tostrud, but Chapman came right back with two more runs in the bottom half to take an 8-1 lead.  Josh Phillips singled in both of those runs in the fifth.

Carthage scored its second run in the seventh on a run-scoring single off the bat of Colton Klein, but once again, Chapman came right back to score twice in the bottom half, the first coming on an RBI-double by Philips, who went three-for-four with four RBI.  Cole Minato singled in the inning's second run for the final, 11-2 margin.

Chapman starting pitcher Grant Manning (1-1) limited Carthage to those two runs, none earned, on eight hits and two walks over seven innings, while striking out 11 batters.  Brad Lang blanked the Firebirds over the final two frame.  Guarascio surrendered the first eight runs, three earned, on eight hits and three walks over four and two-thirds innings.  Nic Vitritti entered the game in the fifth and Nathan Schnabel in the seventh.

Carthage managed 10 hits in the game, with Cody Tostrud, Bryce Prybylinski and Matt Felber each collecting two hits.

"Dante Guarascio had a rough time in the first inning," admitted Carthage coach Augie Schmidt IV.  "We could have been out of the inning with a double play, but we didn't make the play, and the floodgates sort of opened.  We wound up spotting one of the best teams in the country six runs in the first two inning, and that's not going to work.  Their pitcher was very good.  We did hit the ball around off him, but we couldn't get the big hit.  Chapman is really good, and they were fun to play, once we got past the first two innings.  Once Dante settled in, he pitched really well.  Hopefully, he learned something about how to pitch to really good teams."

Carthage takes on Southwest Minnesota State University (6-5) on Sunday at 11 a.m., CDT.