TUCSON, Ariz. – The Carthage College baseball team split their spring break opening doubleheader on Friday in Tucson, Arizona against Mayville State University.  The Red Men fell in the opener in extra innings, 7-6, before taking the evening game, 10-4.
 
The split moves the Red Men to 2-2 on the young season, while the Comets move to 16-4.
 
GM1: Mayville 7, Carthage 6
The Red Men jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first off the Mayville starter as a triple by Jared Knoespel drove in leadoff man Drew Korosic and Reed Hero knocked in Knoespel as he reached on an error.
 
After Mayville got a run back in the second, Carthage added a pair of runs in the fourth as Knoespel singled in Alex Letto and John Burkiewicz.  Zach Wade extended the lead to 5-1 in the fifth with a RBI single scoring Jordan Wiegold.  Knoespel finished 2-4 at the plate to lead the Red Men with three RBI's.
 
Mayville began comeback in the sixth as they got to starter Chris DeRue for four earned runs including a three-run homerun to tie the game with one out in the inning.  DeRue finished the day allowing five earned in 5.1 while striking out six Comets.
 
The game went to extras as neither team could tack on a go-ahead run in the contest that was scheduled for seven innings.
 
Mayville broke through first in the ninth with an RBI double, which was answered by the Red Men as Anthony Fortunate was hit by a pitch with one out in the bottom of the ninth with the bases loaded.  However, the Red Men would leave bases loaded as the Comets escaped the jam.
 
Mayville took advantage of the Red Men's misfortune in the next inning with an RBI single that score what was the eventual winning run in the 10^th.
 
GM2: Carthage 10, Mayville 4
Carthage flipped the script in the second game with their bats coming alive late to take second game of the day. 
 
After falling behind 1-0 in the first, the Red Men found themselves with the bases loaded in the second.  A pair of walks to Knoespel and Wiegold gave the Red Men a short-lived 2-1 lead after two, which they carried into the fourth.
 
Carthage starter Kevin Tibor was touched up for three runs in the fourth to give Mayville a 4-2 lead. Tibor then settled down the rest of the way to earn the complete game win allowing just the four runs over seven innings.
 
The Carthage bats then came alive late as the Red Men exploded for eight runs over the final three innings to win in a landslide.
 
In the fifth, Nick Pierce drove in Matt Rave to cut the deficit to one and Drew Korosic tied it with an RBI single to score Zach Wade.  Then, with two on in the sixth, Ryan Rogers doubled to left, scoring Wade and Wiegold to take a 6-4 lead.
 
The Red Men added four insurance runs in the seventh with Knoespel's first hit of the game to drive in Korosic followed by Zach Wade's third hit of the game on a two-run RBI triple.  Rodgers then capped the Red Men's win with an RBI single to score Wade.
 
The Red Men return to action on Saturday with a single game in Tucson, as Carthage faces Oberlin College at 10:00 a.m.