By Steve Marovich, Athletics Staff Writer/2022 Baseball Contact

In a game that got away in the ninth inning, the Carthage College baseball team (3-6) lost to Southwest Minnesota State University (7-5), 10-8, on Sunday, March 13 at the Kino Sports Complex in Tucson, Ariz.  Sunday's game was the second-of-seven contests for the Firebirds at the Tucson Invitational.

Carthage took a 2-0 lead in the third inning.  An RBI-double by Austin Prybylinski scored the first run, and Cody Tostrud scored on a wild pitch.  Meanwhile, Firebirds starting pitcher Bryce Schaum blanked the Mustangs on just a double and two singles through the first five innings.

Southwest Minnesota State made it a 2-1 game in the sixth, scoring a run on an infield error by the Firebirds.  The Mustangs tied the game, 2-2, in the seventh on a sacrifice bunt-RBI off the bat of Jackson Bates, scoring Andy Andresen from third.

Carthage scored four runs in the eighth to re-gain the lead, 6-2.  An RBI-double by Colton Klein scored the go-ahead run.  Pierson Gibis drove in the second run with an infield grounder.  Matt Felber doubled in the third run and Evan Devine singled in the fourth.

Unfortunately, the ninth inning turned into a nightmare, as Southwest Minnesota scored eight times to take a 10-6 lead.  Relief pitcher Kyle McKinnon, who replaced Schaum in the eighth and coasted through that inning, walked the first two batters he faced in the ninth and was replaced by James Lindenmuth.  Lindenmuth was greeted by an Andresen single that loaded the bases, and then the freshman issued back-to-back bases-loaded walks to Trey Runge and Jake Tauer to make it a 6-4 game. 

Andresen then scored on a wild pitch to make it 6-5, and Kip Gronholz followed with an RBI-single to tie the game, 6-6.  Owen Latendresse hit another run-scoring single to put the Mustangs up, 7-6, and Nick Brown followed with a two-run triple to up the lead to 9-6.  Jaxson Haase singled in Brown to give Southwest Minnesota a 10-6 margin.

The Firebirds kept battling in the bottom of the ninth, as Klein doubled in a run with one out to cut the lead to 10-7, and Bryce Prybylinski doubled in Klein to make it 10-8.  Pierson Gibis flied out to left for the second out, and Matt Felber flied out, also to left, to end the game.

Owen Latendresse (1-0), the fourth-of-five Mustang hurlers, was credited with the win, despite giving up two runs in two-thirds of an inning.  Brady Brosz got the final two outs to earn his first save.  James Lindenmuth (0-1) took the loss and surrendered six runs and five hits and two walks over an inning.  Starting pitcher Bryce Schaum pitched brilliantly, allowing just two runs, one earned, on six hits and no walks over seven innings, while striking out seven batters.

Austin Prybylinski led the Firebirds by going three-for-five with two runs scored and an RBI, while Colton Klein had two hits in five trips with a pair of RBI.  The Mustangs' Owen Latendresse went four-for-five.

"We made things interesting in the top of the ninth," said Carthage coach Augie Schmidt IV, "and we made it interesting again in our half.  Freshman Bryce Schaum pitched an unbelievable game against a good NCAA Division II team.  I mean he really pitched well.  The top of the ninth inning was just craziness.  Both of our relief pitchers in that inning had been strike throwers, but we got ourselves in trouble with walks, and Nick Brown hits that triple down the right field foul line, and everybody scores.  You have to get ahead in the count when you have al lead, and we just didn't get it done today.  After we spit things up in the top half, naturally we battled back in the bottom of the ninth, but it was too little, too late."

Carthage takes on Macalester University on Monday in an 11 a.m., CDT game.