ROCK ISLAND, Ill. – The Carthage College baseball team dropped a pair of games on  Friday in Rock Island, Illinois as the Vikings of Augustana College topped the Red Men 7-4 and 9-3.
 
The pair of losses drops Carthage to 18-16 on the season and to 10-10 in the CCIW, while Augustana improves to 26-10 and 12-8 in the CCIW.
 
GAME 1: Augustana 7, Carthage 4
Carthage dropped the opener after Augustana knocked out starter Chris DeRue following just three innings in his shortest appearance of the season.  The Vikings got to DeRue for six runs, five earned, on eight hits and two walks. 
 
After falling behind 5-0, the Red Men got a run back as Matt Rave drove in Jared Knoespel for the first run of the day.
 
Carthage then cut the deficit to three at 6-3 in the fifth behind a Rave's second RBI of the game scoring Drew Korosic and a Ryan Rodgers RBI single to score Jordan Wiegold. 
 
Carthage's scoring was capped off in the sixth with a Knoespel single that scored Myles Farley.
 
Brad Dubow earned the win for the Vikings, while Justin Meyer earned the 12-out save.
 
GAME 2: Augustana 9, Carthage 3
The Vikings took game two after scoring three in the bottom of the fourth following 4 ½ scoreless innings.  The Vikings added two in the sixth before the Red Men got on the board in the top of the seventh with a RBI single from Ryan Kramer to score Graham Wick to cut the Vikings lead to 5-1.
 
Augustana answered as they did in game one however with a run in the seventh and three in the in the eighth to doom the Red Men. 
 
Carthage made a late comeback effort with two in the ninth off the bats of Ryan Rodgers and A.J. Kaprelian to score Rave and Kramer respectively, but the Red Men fell 9-3.
 
Tim Sulik took the loss for the Red Men to fall to 5-3, allowing six runs, with only three being earned, and striking out three.
 
The Red Men will look to salvage the series on Sunday as the Red Men face the Vikings in game three.  First pitch is set for noon on Sunday.