Box Score The Carthage College baseball team (14-14, 6-9 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin) lost the rubber game of a three-game set with CCIW-opponent Elmhurst College (17-13, 9-6 CCIW), 5-4, on Sunday, April 22 at the Carthage Baseball Field in Kenosha, Wis. 

The two teams split a Saturday, April 21 doubleheader at Butterfield Park in Elmhurst, Ill.  The Red Men won the first game, 3-2, but fell to the Bluejays by a 4-2 margin in the nightcap.  Elmhurst is now in a four-way tie for first place at 9-6, along with North Park University, Illinois Wesleyan University and North Central College.  Carthage remains in seventh place, three games behind the leaders with six conference games to play.  Only the top-four teams qualify for the CCIW Baseball Tournament.  The last Carthage team not to qualify was the 1988 squad in coach Augie Schmidt IV's second season.
 
In Sunday's game, Elmhurst loaded the bases with nobody out in the second.  Jake Bronkema scored on a wild pitch from Andrew Arenson.  Eric Stevenson drove in a run with a ground ball, and Luke Collins scored on a passed ball.  Dave Wolak followed with an RBI-single for a 4-0 lead.  The Bluejays batted around in the inning, which saw three wild pitches, three walks and a passed ball.  Jon Kleinmeyer replaced Arenson in the third inning. 

Tim Nolan's RBI-single in the fourth upped the Bluejays' lead to 5-0.  The Red Men got on the scoreboard in the fifth on an RBI-single by Kyle Pusateri but left the bases loaded.  An RBI-single by Drew Bailey in the sixth cut the lead to 5-2.  Carthage had a promising rally cut short in the seventh.  With a run in and the bases loaded, Tanner Wensman lined a shot to third baseman Eris Stevenson, who caught Pusateri a few steps off the bag at third to complete the double play.  The Red Men pulled to within a run, 5-4, in the ninth on a Mike Gentile RBI-single, but Bluejays reliever Brennan McClung got Tanner Wensman to fly to center with a man on to end the game.
 
Joe Ramirez (1-2) was the winning pitcher.  He limited the Red Men to two runs on eight hits and two walks over five and two-thirds innings.  McClung earned his second save despite surrendering two runs on six hits over the final three frames.  Andrew Arenson (1-2) took the loss, with Jon Kleinmeyer going the final seven innings and allowing just one unearned run on five hits and a walk.  Carthage collected 15 hits  but left 12 on base.  Joey Aiello, Kyle Pusateri and Chris D'Angelo had three hits each.  Carthage plays host to non-conference opponent Aurora University (25-7) on Tuesday, April 24 in a 3 p.m. game at the Carthage Baseball Field.