Box Score
The Carthage College baseball team (15-11, 7-5 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin), ranked 28th in the April 13 “D3baseball.com” poll, lost to CCIW-opponent and No. 35 North Central College (20-5, 9-3 CCIW), 7-4, on Sunday, April 18 at the Carthage Baseball Field in Kenosha, Wis.
Prior to the game, the Carthage and North Central (Ill.) completed the second game of Saturday's doubleheader, which was suspended in the middle of the seventh inning, on account of darkness, with Carthage leading, 10-7. The Red Men went on to win that game by an 11-7 margin. The first two games of the series were played on Saturday, April 17 at Zimmerman Stadium/Alumni Field in Naperville, Ill., with the Cardinals winning the opening contest, 14-13.
In the suspended game, North Central took a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Carthage went up, 4-1, in the third. Joey Aiello and Tim Hansen hit back-to-back doubles, with Aiello scoring, and Will Hodges singled to score Hansen. Josh Albers singled to score Hodges, and Eric Barber doubled in Albers. The Cardinals cut the lead to 4-2 in the bottom of the third on a sacrifice fly by Nick Robinson. North Central took a 5-4 lead with three runs in the fourth. Matt Burke hit a sacrifice fly and Dan Scott a two-run single.
The Red Men re-gained the lead, 6-5, in the fifth, thanks to a two-run double by Joey Aiello. The Cardinals went back up, 7-6, in the bottom of the fifth on a two-run double by Matt Burke. Carthage tied the game, 7-7, in the sixth on a run-scoring single by Trevor Whately. The Red Men took a 10-7 lead with three runs in the seventh. Zach Kozlowski hit a bases-loaded, RBI-single. Will Hodges scored on a front end of a double play, and Mike Petti doubled in the third run of the inning. An RBI-double by Carthage's Joey Aiello in the eighth completed the scoring at 11-7.
Danny Dahm (1-1), in relief of starter Chris Krepline, picked up the win. Dahm entered the game with two outs in the fourth inning and pitched through the sixth, allowing two unearned runs on one hit and two walks. When the game was resumed, Red Men hurler Trace Ruffie made his first appearance since undergoing “Tommy John surgery” on his elbow last June. Ruffie blanked the Cardinals on no hits and a walk over the final three innings to earn his first save since his freshman season of 2007. Ricky Foytik (1-2), the fifth-of-seven North Central pitchers, took the loss. Joey Aiello, Josh Albers and Zach Kozlowski each had three hits, as the Red Men collected 20 base hits. Aiello also drove in three runs.
In the rubber game of the series, doubles by Joey Aiello and Tim Hansen in the first inning gave Carthage a 1-0 lead. North Central went up, 4-1, in the third on an RBI-double by Michael Corrigan, a two-run single by Joe Turek and an RBI-single by Steve Hlavac. The Cardinals made it 5-1 in the fourth on an RBI-single by Corrigan. North Central scored twice in the seventh on a pair of Red Men throwing errors on the same play, putting the Cardinals up, 7-1.
A two-run single by Carthage's Billy Herrin in the seventh cut that lead to 7-3. The Red Men's Mike Petti singled in a run in the eighth for the final, 7-4 margin. North Central's Nate Arenson upped his record to 6-0 by allowing four runs on 13 hits and a walk over seven and two-thirds innings. Kevin Krajewski worked the final innings and a third to collect his second save of the year. Eric Rohe (2-1) took the loss for Carthage. Rohe surrendered six runs, five earned, on 13 hits and four walks over six innings. Submariner Dan Weber worked the final three innings and allowed one unearned run on three hits and a pair of walks.
Carthage plays host to non-conference opponent Concordia University (Wis., 15-9) on Tuesday, April 20 in a 3 p.m. game, also at the Carthage Baseball Field.
