The Carthage College baseball team (25-11, 12-9 College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin) split a Saturday, May 2 doubleheader with CCIW-opponent North Central College (25-14, 16-5 CCIW) at Augie Schmidt Field in Kenosha, Wis. North Central won the opening game, 13-8, but Carthage took the nightcap by an 8-5 margin. The Red Men opened the three-game series on Friday, May 1 with an 8-5 loss at Zimmerman Stadium/Alumni Field in Naperville, Ill.
With Friday's win, North Central clinched the conference championship, along with the home field and the top seed for next week's CCIW Baseball Tournament. The title is the 11th overall for the Cardinals and their first since 2010. Millikin University baseball defeated Augustana College (ill.), 8-7, in 10 innings on Friday night. For Augustana, the loss eliminated the Vikings from qualifying for the CCIW Baseball Tournament and secured a spot for Carthage.
The seeding for the tournament was settled on Saturday. Carthage will be the fourth seed and will play North Central again on Thursday, May 7 in a first-round tournament game at Zimmerman Stadium/Alumni Field, beginning at Noon. Second-seeded Wheaton College (Ill., 21-19, 14-7 CCIW) takes on third-seeded Illinois Wesleyan University (24-14, 12-9) in the other first-round game, beginning at 3 p.m.
In Saturday's opener, North Central jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning of the opener on a three-run homer by Sam Klein off Carthage starting pitcher Tim Sulik. Richard Concialdi singled in a run in the Cardinal third inning for a 4-0 lead, but Carthage leftfielder Jared Knoespel gunned down Joe Paparone trying to score from second on the play. North Central upped its lead to 6-0 in the fourth. A costly fielding error by right fielder Jared Helmich on Brett Fong single led to an RBI-single for Vito DeRango, who also wound up scoring on a single by Sam Klein. An RBI-single by Fong in the fifth made it 7-0. Joe Paparone launched a three-run home run, just inside the leftfield foul pole, in the sixth, and the Cardinals, led, 10-0. A solo homer run by Sam Carius in the seventh made it an 11-0 contest. Carthage's John Stevens hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the seventh to cut the lead to 11-3, before the Cardinals scored again in the eighth to make 12 12-3. The Red Men scored in the bottom of the eighth, but the Cardinals answered in the ninth to make it 13-4. The Red Men scored four in the bottom of the ninth for the final, 13-8 margin. Jake Erfourth accounted for most of those with a three-run homer.
Bryan Polowy (7-1) was the winning pitcher, and he blanked Carthage on four hits, no walks and seven strikeouts over six innings. Tim Sulik (So., Milwaukee, Wis./Pius XI, 4-2) took the loss and gave up seven runs, five earned, on 10 hits over five innings. John Stevens went two-for-two for the Red Men with four RBI.
In the nightcap, Carthage's Jared Helmich (Jr., Lake Villa, Ill./Fox Lake-Grant Community), who earlier this season compiled a school-record, 30-game hit streak, celebrated his birthday with a three home run, six-RBI game.
North Central took a 2-0 lead in the second game with single runs in the third and fourth. A two-run home run by Helmich in the fourth tied the game, 2-2. After the Cardinals scored two in the top of the fifth to take a 4-2 lead, Carthage scored four in the bottom half to go up, 6-4. Helmich hit a three-run homer in the fourth. An RBI-grounder by Graham Wick in the sixth upped Carthage's lead to 7-4, and North Central scored in the seventh to make it 7-5. Helmich hit his third home run, a solo shot this time, in the eighth to make it an 8-5 contest and closed out the scoring. His three home runs tied a Carthage game record set by Dean Muthig in 1999 and subsequently matched by Glen Braun in 1999, Brad Burger in 2000 and Warren Even in 2005.
Kyle Cibrario (Jr., Libertyville, Ill., 2-0), in relief of starter Josh Daniels, picked up the win. Cibrario worked the fifth thru seventh innings and allowed two runs, one earned, on four hits. Luke Mentkowski (Jr., Greenfield, Wis./Whitnall) blanked the Cardinals on two hits over the final two frames to earn his fourth save. Evan Blunk (4-2) was the losing pitcher.
Carthage travels to Mequon, Wis., on Sunday, May 3 to play Concordia University (Wis., 21-17) in a 1 p.m. non-conference game at Kapco Field.