KENOSHA, Wis. – Despite being the designated visiting team in the Carthage College Red Men's home opener on Tuesday due to field issues in Waukesha, the Red Men opened their home slate in impressive fashion, defeating the Pioneers in seven innings, 13-3.
The win moves the Red Men to 8-6 on the season and 1-0 in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin, while Carroll falls to 0-1 in the CCIW and 4-11 overall.
The breakthrough took place in the top of the second inning when the Red Men erupted for 10 runs on nine hits to open up an 11-1 lead following a 1-1 tie after one. Key hits for the Red Men came on a bases loaded three-run RBI double by
Matt Rave and a bases loaded three-run RBI triple by
Alex Letto. Letto also opened the inning with and RBI double in the inning.
"We came out of Arizona hitting the ball really well," said head coach
Augie Schmidt IV following the win. "Playing on Saturday may have worked to our advantage since we got going today without a long layoff. But our hitters came out swinging today, which was good to see."
The reigning CCIW Hitter of the Week, Rave, continued to swing a hot bat as he went 4-5 in the win with four runs batted in and scoring twice.
Zach Wade also had a four-hit day, as the third baseman went 4-4 with a run and an RBI.
Nick Pierce added a pair of RBIs in separate at bats in the inning and
Jordan Wiegold drove in
Reed Hero as well.
Pierce and
Jared Knoespel tallied three hits apiece and Hero, Wiegold and Letto each had two hits in the win. The Red Men's 21 total hits in the victory are a season high.
Junior
Kevin Tibor moved to 4-0 on the year as the run support was more than enough in the win. Tibor went all seven innings allowing three runs, two earned, on seven hits, while striking out eight. Tibor did not allow a walk in his outing.
On his starter Schmidt said, "Kevin threw the ball really well. He is a workhorse and gets better as the game goes on. He wasn't quite ready out of the pen in the first but he really settled in and threw a really good game for us."
All 11 runs over the first two innings were charged to Carroll starter Carter Howard, as the loss dropped him to 1-2 on the season.
The Red Men will return to action on Wednesday as Carthage heads to North Central College for a CCIW matchup with the Cardinals. First pitch is set for 3:00 p.m. from Naperville.
