It was Survivor Horenberger Field for the Carthage College baseball team (30-11) on Thursday, May 19, as the Red Men stayed alive at the NCAA Division III Central Region Championship by eliminating Coe College (32-12), 5-3, at Jack Horenberger Field in Bloomington, Ill.
Carthage will play No. 24 Thomas More College (29-8) on Friday, May 20 at 1:30 p.m. Eric Rohe (Jr. Mundelein, Ill., 6-2), who struck out 13 batters in the Red Men's 11-1 win over North Central College on Sunday at the CCIW Baseball Tournament, will pitch on Friday.
On the first day of regional action on Wednesday, May 18, Buena Vista University ran a "small-ball" clinic, and Carthage College committed five infield errors on Wednesday, May 18, as the fifth-seeded Beavers (29-15) defeated the second-seeded and No. 20 Red Men (29-11), 8-1, in a first-round game. It was not a day to be top-seeded team, as the No. 1 seed, Coe College (32-11 and ranked 26th nationally), lost to sixth-seeded Ripon College (21-18), 3-2, in Wednesday's first game. Fourth-seeded and No. 40 Illinois Wesleyan (27-16) completed the sweep of the top seeds in Wednesday's third game by edging third-seeded and No. 24 Thomas More College (28-8), 3-2.
Thomas More (29-8) defeated Ripon (21-19), 5-3, in Thursdays second game, with Buena Vista (30-15) winning over Illinois Wesleyan (27-17) by a 7-1 margin. Ripon (21-19) will take on Illinois Wesleyan (27-17) in Friday's first game, with that winner playing Buena Vista (30-15) in Friday's third game.
In the Red Men's win over Coe, Carthage broke a scoreless tie with a two-run fourth inning. After loading the bases on a walk to Will Hodges, a Zach Kozlowski single and a walk to Kyle Pusateri, Matt Soderlund doubled in two runs. The Red Men upped their lead to 5-0 with three runs in the fifth. After Joey Aiello singled and Will Hodges was hit by a pitch, John Hasser singled in a run. Chris D'Angelo followed with a two-run, stand-up triple that got by a diving Coe centerfielder Nick Stein
Meanwhile, Carthage pitcher Danny Dahm (Sr., Morton Grove, Ill./Skokie-Niles West, 5-0) was on cruise control. After allowing just a single in each of the first three innings, he grazed Schuver with a pitch in the fourth. A double play ended that inning, and Dahm proceeded to retire the next 13 batters in order over the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth frames.
Because it wouldn't be Carthage baseball 2011-style without makings things interesting, the ninth inning got very interesting. With one out, the Kohawks put runners on second and third on a walk to Stein, a balk and an error by third baseman Zach Kozlowski. Adam Nisenson followed with a single up the middle to score both runners, cutting the lead to 5-2. Kevin Schuver then hit a single to the hole that shortstop Kyle Pusateri threw away on the attempted force play at second base. Nisenson wound up at third and Schuver at second, with Ryan Schisler at the plate, representing the game-tying run. Dahm got Schisler on a swinging strikeout for the second out, but Ryan Velvick singled to center to score Nisenson, with Schuver stopping at third. With the tying run now at first base, Dahm got pinch-hitter Kaileb Armstrong on a grounder to short to end the game.
Dahm allowed three runs, just one earned, on six hits and a walk over nine innings, while striking out six batters. Wade Morris (10-3) took the loss. Morris surrendered all five Carthage runs on seven hits and two walks over five innings. Alex Korth blanked the Red Men on one hit over the final three innings. Chris D'Angelo (Jr., Des Plaines, Ill./Elk Grove) went two-for-four with a triple and two RBI, while John Hasser (Sr., St. Louis, Mo./Christian Brother College H.S.) went two-for-four with a double and an RBI.
"Danny Dahm did a great job today," said Carthage coach Augie Schmidt IV, "and he gave us just what we needed. Now that we understand how some of these teams play with the small-ball and the running game, we needed to get ahead and take the pressure off our pitching. For Dahm to go out and stuff Coe like he did, he was the story in this game. We played a great game until the ninth inning when we kicked it around again and got that panicked-look. 'Here we go again,' I'm thinking. There's that iceberg again. The Buena Vista game was embarrassing, and it hurt a lot because we care so much. We talked a lot about that last night, and I'm proud of how we approached this game. We showed everyone that we can play, and we live to see another day. You hope you can battle your way back into something, and I think we have enough pitching to do that."