The Carthage College baseball team (22-8, 10-6 College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin) lost the opening game of a three-game set with CCIW-opponent Illinois Wesleyan University (21-10, 11-5 CCIW), 11-1 in seven innings, on Friday night, April 24 at Jack Horenberger Field in Bloomington, Ill. 

With the loss, Carthage fell into third place, trailing North Central College (20-12, 11-4 CCIW) and Illinois Wesleyan, and just a game ahead of fourth-place Wheaton College (Ill., 15-18. 9-7).  The Red Men and the Titans conclude the three-game set with a Saturday, April 25 doubleheader, beginning at Noon.  The weather forecast for Saturday calls for occasional rain and isolated thunderstorms.

Illinois Wesleyan took a 2-0 lead in the first inning on a two-run single by Matthew Mardis.  The Titans scored two unearned runs in the third to take a 4-0 lead.  Graham Wick's RBI-single in the fourth inning cut the lead to 4-1, but Illinois Wesleyan broke the game open with a six-run fifth inning to take a 10-1 lead.  Tim Coonan's three-run triple was the big hit in the fifth frame.  The Titans added another run in the sixth to go up, 11-1, and the game was halted in the seventh, due to a 10-run rule.

Carthage's Jared Helmich (Jr., Lake Villa, Ill./Fox Lake-Grant Community) singled through the left side in the fourth inning to extend his school-record hit streak to 30 games.

Matt Hart (4-1) was the winning pitcher, and he limited the Red Men to one run on 11 hits, no walks and seven strikeouts over seven innings.  Josh Daniels (Sr., Elk Grove, Ill., 4-2) took the loss.  Daniels allowed the first six runs, just three earned, on four hits and five walks over four innings.  Dalton Sjong pitched the final two innings.  Reed Hero and Graham Wick each had two hits for Carthage.