Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 Good Friday it wasn't.  The Carthage College baseball team (6-11, 1-6 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin) lost both ends of a Friday, April 6 doubleheader to CCIW-opponent and No. 37 Augustana College (Ill., 15-7, 3-4 CCIW), 2-1 and 9-3, at the Carthage Baseball Field in Kenosha, Wis. 

Combined with Millikin University's sweep over Elmhurst College on Saturday, the Red Men find themselves in a highly-unusual position in the conference standings—last.  Carthage has lost four games in a row and six of its last seven.
 
After three scoreless and hitless innings in the opener, Augustana broke the ice with a run in the fourth inning.  Carthage came right to tie the game on an RBI-single by Nick Schmidlkofer in the bottom half, but failed to add any more after loading the bases with one out.  That's the way things stayed until the top of the eighth when the Vikings broke the tie.  Joe Cecchi led off with a single, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt, went to third pitch and scored on a fielding error by shortstop Drew Bailey.  The winning pitcher was Mike Trotta (5-0), who limited the Red Men to one run on seven hits and four walks.  Josiah Martin pitched a one-two-three ninth inning to earn his third save.  Pitcher Eric Rohe (Sr., Mundelein, Ill., 1-2) was the hard-luck loser.  Rohe surrendered two runs, one earned, on five hits and no walks over nine innings.
 
Carthage got off to a rough start in the second game, as Augustana scored three times in the opening inning on two singles and an error by Red Men shortstop Drew Bailey.  Carthage got two runs back in the bottom half on a two-run single by Andrew Arenson, but the Red Men left the bases loaded.  The Viking scored twice in the third on two hits and two walks to up their lead to 5-2.  Bailey's RBI-double in the bottom of the third made it 5-3, but Augustana came right back with a three-run fourth frame to go up by five runs, 8-3.  Two of the three Viking runs in the fourth were unearned following a fielding error by Carthage second baseman Stevo Kraynak.  The Vikings tacked on another run in the fifth for the final, 9-3 margin.  The Red Men committed four errors in the nightcap and two in the opening game.
 
Augustana pitcher Seth Davis (1-1) took over for starter Ryan Thompson in the fourth inning, and Carthage had no answer for the lefty hurler.  Davis retired 16 in a row before issuing a one-out walk to Bailey in the ninth.  Bailey was promptly picked off first, and Davis retired pinch-hitter Mike Wasche to end the game.  Danny Dahm (Sr., Morton Grove, Ill./Skokie-Niles West, 1-2) took the loss by giving up all nine runs, only three earned, on 10 hits and four walks over the first five innings.  Mitch Lochen and Andy Pucher finished up.  The two teams conclude the three-game series with a Noon contest on Saturday, April 7.
 
"It was a terrible day," said Carthage coach Augie Schmidt IV.  "We played bad baseball and got what we deserved.  We had a lot a lot of chances in the first game, but we lost because we couldn't field a ground ball.  I don't what to say about the second game, except we had more errors than hits.  We're still waiting for something bad to happen, and it happened today.  I don't have a lot of answers right now.  Most of the time, we don't play good baseball, and when we do, we seem to crack an inopportune time.  It's been like that most of the year.  I'm not too sure how to get us out of this."