By Steve Marovich, Athletics Staff Writer/2022 Baseball Contact

The Carthage College baseball team (12-25, 5-11 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin) closed out its 2022 home schedule on Friday, May 6 with a 13-0 loss to CCIW-opponent Augustana College (Ill., 28-9, 10-6) at Augie Schmidt Field in Kenosha, Wis.

Augustana jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning on a leadoff home run by Jacob Barker.  The Vikings erupted for seven runs in the second to take an 8-0 lead.  Matt Ozanic hit a two-run single, and Chase Maifield was hit by pitch with the bases loaded to score another.  Brett Benedetti hit a two-run single, Alex McGinnis an RBI-double, and Kyle Wise drove in the last run of the inning with a ground ball.  McGinnis singled in a run in the fourth to put Augustana up, 9-0. 

Kyle Campbell hit an RBI-double in the fifth, and the Vikings led, 10-0.  Benedetti scored on a wild pitch in the sixth to up the lead to 11-0.  Both Alex Simon and Matt Ozanic scored on wild pitches in the sixth to close out the scoring at 13-0.  The game was called after seven innings due to a 10-run rule.

Augustana starting pitcher Harrison Boushele (5-2) pitched a masterful game, blanking Carthage on two hits, no walks and 10 strikeouts over six innings.  Anthony Sus mopped up in the seventh inning to complete the shutout.  James Lindenmuth (1-2), the first-of-three Firebird pitchers, took the loss by giving up five runs on five hits and two walks over the first inning and a third.  Nick Hamilton worked the middle three and two-thirds innings, with Chance Roach pitching the final two frames.

Carthage winds up its conference schedule on Saturday, May 7 with a 1 p.m. doubleheader versus No. 11 and CCIW-champion North Central College (29-8, 13-2) at Zimmerman Stadium in Naperville, Ill.

"We knew what we were in for facing Harrison Boushele," said Carthage coach Augie Schmidt IV, "but we wanted to compete better than we did.  Being a young team is just an excuse at this point in the season.  We should be able to put up a little better fight than we did.  It was disappointing, but it is what it is.  We were also at the back end of our pitching after moving last weekend's Millikin doubleheader to Monday, which meant that we couldn't use anybody who pitched on Monday.  Tomorrow, we have an even-tougher opponent in North Central.  I like playing these teams, though, because we have 20 young kids in our dugout who need to see what they need to do to be successful." 

With the loss, Carthage lost any chance of gaining the sixth-and-final berth in next week's CCIW Baseball Tournament.  Even with a sweep on Saturday of North Central, and even with sixth-place Illinois Wesleyan University losing its final three games, the Titans would have the tie-breaker with the Firebirds based on winning both regular-season games over Carthage.