By Steve Marovich, Athletics Staff Writer/2022 Baseball Contact
The Carthage College baseball team (3-8) saw its losing skid go to four games on Tuesday, March 15 with a 13-3 loss to Edgewood College (5-4) at the Kino Sports Complex in Tucson, Ariz. The Eagles took advantage of seven Firebird errors in the seven-inning game.
Carthage took a 3-0 lead in the third inning on an RBI-single by P.T. Boeye, an RBI-double by Bryce Prybylinski and a run-scoring infield out off the bat of Chase Gibson.
Edgewood came up with a big inning in the fourth, scoring six times to take a 6-3 lead. An RBI-single by Joseph Kalafut opened the scoring, followed by a two-run single by Adam Cairo, another two-run single by Connor Goodwin and an infield throwing error that allowed the sixth run to cross the plate.
The Eagles added a single run in the fifth to go up by four, 7-3, and then scored four more in the sixth for an 11-3 advantage. The first two runs in the sixth scored on a throwing error by pitcher Kyle McKinnon. Kyle Semrad singled in another, followed by an infield throwing error that allowed the fourth run to score.
Edgewood made it 13-3 in the seventh, with a run scoring on an outfield error and a second run scoring on an infield error, the Firebirds' seventh miscue of the game. The contest was halted after the inning on account of a 10-run rule.
Carthage starting pitcher Jake Hartman Jr. (1-1) took the loss and went three and two-thirds innings, allowing six runs, five earned, on seven hits and three walks. Kyle McKinnon came on to pitch in the fourth inning, Iyan Pelfree in the sixth and Nic Vitritti in the seventh. Starting pitcher Kyle Jungers (2-0) went the distance for Edgewood and limited the Firebirds to three runs on six hits, no walks and four strikeouts over seven innings. P.T. Boeye and Bryce Prybylinski each had two hits for Carthage.
"This one was bad," said Carthage coach Augie Schmidt IV. "We had dropped popups and infield grounders that we just threw away. I don't know what the problem is. It's not mechanical, and it's not good. You'd have to look pretty hard to find something positive from this game, although Jake Hartman Jr. threw the ball pretty well for three innings before he got stuck in the fourth. We swung the bat pretty good, but it was really bad baseball and it can only get better. We'll take a day off on Wednesday to regroup and figure some things out."
Following an off-day on Wednesday, Carthage returns to action on Thursday, March 17 with a 3:30 p.m., CDT game against Macalester, also in Tucson. The Firebirds fell to the Scots, 15-5, on Monday.