Game #1 Box Score
Game #2 Box Score
The Carthage College baseball team (26-14, 13-8 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin), ranked fourth in the May 5 NCAA Division III Central Regional poll, closed out its regular-season schedule on Sunday, May 9 by splitting a doubleheader with CCIW-opponent North Park University (27-13, 15-6 CCIW) at the Holmgren Athletic Complex in Chicago. The Vikings, ranked sixth in the May 5 regional poll, won the first game, 6-1, and the Red Men won a 15-14 contest in the nightcap.
Carthage took a 1-0 lead in the first inning of the opener when Trevor Whately doubled, advanced on a wild pitch and scored on an infield grounder by Joey Aiello. North Park tied the game, 1-1, in the second. That's the way it stayed until Zach Deutscher's RBI single in the sixth gave the Vikings a 2-1 lead. North Park scored four in the seventh to take 6-1 lead. Andy Athans and Ryan Javech hit RBI-singles, and Devin Melecio followed with a two-run single. Vikings hurler Pete Sparacino (8-1) limited the Red Men to one run on four hits and three walks. Carthage pitcher Eric Rohe (4-2) went the first six and two-thirds innings allowed six runs, five earned, on 10 hits and a walk with no strikeouts. Tim Keyes worked the final inning and a third. Trevor Whately and Will Hodges had two hits each for Carthage, while North Park's Devin Melecio had three hits in four trips with three RBI.
The Red Men took a 2-0 lead in the first inning of the nightcap on an RBI-single by Joey Aiello and sacrifice fly off the bat of Zach Kozlowski. The Vikings scored a run in the first and three in the second to take a 4-2 lead. Carthage scored five in the top of the third to go up, 7-4. Mike Petti and Aiello hit back-to-back RBI-triples, with Aiello scoring on a balk. Eric Barber followed with a two-run single. North Park came right back with five runs in the bottom of the third to re-claim the lead, 9-7. The Vikings added two more runs in the fourth and one in the fifth to go up, 12-7. The Red Men cut the lead to 12-11 with a four-run seventh inning. Carthage scored on a solo home run by Will Hodges, an RBI-single by Matt Soderlund. an RBI-double by Billy Herrin and run-scoring single by Aiello. The Red men tied the game, 12-12, in the eighth on run-scoring single by Chris D'Angelo.
The Red Men took a 15-12 lead in the ninth. With the bases loaded, Chris D'Angelo hit a two-run single, and Nate Hughes followed with an RBI-single. The Vikings' Mike Domenick hit a two-run single in the bottom of the ninth to make it a 15-14 game, but Bryan Kieffer got the last two outs to end the contest. Billy Montemayor (1-0) was the winning pitcher, with Kieffer picking up his second save. Nick Soldano (2-1), the fourth-of-five North Park pitchers, took the loss. Billy Herrin and Joey Aiello each had three hits, with Aiello driving in three runs. Carthage set a school record with seven errors, breaking a mark of six first set against Elmhurst in 1997 and subsequently matched four other times.
Carthage will be the third seed in the Thursday-Saturday, May 13-15 CCIW Baseball Tournament. North Central College (31-7, 17-4 CCIW), this year's conference champion, will play host to the tournament at Zimmerman Stadium/Alumni Field in Naperville, Ill. The Cardinals will take on fourth-seeded Illinois Wesleyan University (19-19, 12-9) in a first-round game on Thursday at 3 p.m., with Carthage matching up with second-seeded North Park in the other first-round contest at Noon. The tournament continues on Friday, May 14 with games at 9:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.
