The Carthage College baseball team (27-10, 14-7 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin), ranked 22nd in the May 9 National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association /"D3baseball.com" poll and third in the May 12 NCAA Division III Central Region poll, opened play at the CCIW Baseball Tournament on Thursday, May 12 with a 9-4 win over No. 25 North Park University (30-11, 15-6 CCIW) at Illinois Wesleyan University's Jack Horenberger Field in Bloomington, Ill. No. 28 Illinois Wesleyan (26-14, 15-6) edged fourth-seeded North Central College (20-16, 13-8), 5-4, in the other first-round contest.
In the Illinois Wesleyan win, North Central took a 3-0 lead in the third when Michael Corrigan launched a three-run home run off Illinois Wesleyan pitcher Jason Pankau. The Titans came right back to tie the game, 3-3, in the bottom half off Cardinals hurler Jon Rashid. A.J. Nathan's sacrifice fly in the sixth broke the tie and gave IWU a 4-3 lead. Corrigan tied the game, 4-4, in the top of the seventh with a sacrifice fly. The Titans won the game in the ninth. Ryan Hopp led off the inning with a walk and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt. Hopp went to third on a wild pitch, and with two outs, he scored on a fielding error by North Central second baseman Matt Burke. Jason Pankau (7-2) was the winning pitcher and threw 144 pitches in the complete-game effort.
In the Red Men's win over North Park, the Vikings took a 2-0 lead in the first inning off Carthage starting pitcher Nic Jensen (Sr., Appleton, Wis./East). The Vikings loaded the bases with one out on a single and two hit batters, their 103rd and 104th hit batters of the year. Brad Medina hit an RBI-single, and Zach Deutscher followed with a sacrifice fly. North Park might have had a bigger inning, but Andy Athans was thrown out at the plate on a delayed double steal.
The Red Men erupted for five runs in the third to take a 5-2 lead. Billy Herrin, Chris D'Angelo and Will Hodges hit back-to-back-to-back home runs, with Herrin's three-run job. Carthage added a run in the fifth when Tyler Eickmeyer tripled to right center and scored when second baseman Eric Sousanes threw the relay into the Carthage dugout. Medina hit a two-run homer off Jensen in the sixth to cut the lead to 6-4, and Mario Perez replaced Jensen on the hill. The Red Men took an 8-4 lead in the seventh on an RBI-double by Herrin and a single up the middle by D'Angelo that scored Herrin. The Vikings had the bases loaded with one out in the seventh, but Perez got both Athans and Medina chasing pitches to end the threat. An RBI-double by Herrin in the ninth closed out the scoring at 9-4.
Nic Jensen (4-1), who hadn't started a CCIW game all year, was a surprise choice the start the game. The senior made relief appearances against Elmhurst on April 2 and North Central on April 9. He was the winning pitcher in a 9-0 non-conference win over Marian University (Wis.) on May 2 and allowed just four hits over eight innings. Jensen allowed four North Park run on four hits and a walk. Mario Perez blanked the Vikings on one hit and two walks over the final three and two-thirds innings to earn his first collegiate save. Bill Herrin (Sr., Galesburg, Ill.) went three-for-five with two doubles, a home run and five RBI. Chris D'Angelo, Will Hodges and Tyler Eickmeyer each had two hits, with Eickmeyer scoring four times.
"I started Nic Jensen," said Carthage coach Augie Schmidt IV, "because North Park hadn't seen him. Nic has been great all year, and I wanted to give North Park a different look. After Nic, everybody else was in relief. I didn't necessarily plan to have Mario Perez as the first guy out of the bullpen, but I felt like we were going to need two guys. Once we got the lead, I decided to use Mario, and I think he had a bit of payback thing going after he got roughed up by North Park last weekend. He was emotionally into it, and those two guys made me look pretty smart. The back-to-back-to-back home runs were really a lift. We've been chasing runs so much lately, and it's hard to play that way. We needed a lift, which we just haven't had the past few weeks."
The tournament continues on Friday, May 13 with North Central (Ill., 20-16) playing North Park (30-11) in an 11 a.m. loser's bracket game. Illinois Wesleyan (26-14) takes on Carthage (27-10) in a 2 p.m. winner's bracket contest. The winner of the tournament receives the league's automatic qualifier to the NCAA Division III Baseball Championship. Carthage is making its 23rd-straight appearance in the CCIW tournament under head coach Augie Schmidt IV. The last Red Men team not to qualify for the event was Schmidt's 1988 team, his first year at Carthage.