TUCSON, Ariz. – The Carthage College Red Men capped off their spring break on Saturday in Arizona, coming from behind to defeat Rockford University in late innings, 11-8.
Currently riding a six-game win streak, the Red Men improve to 7-2 on the season, while Rockford remains in search of their first win at 0-8.
"Today was great to comeback and win a game that we were losing by five," said head coach Augie Schmidt. "We just hit enough and just pitched enough to get this one today. Overall on the trip, I think it was very positive. Going 7-2 on the trip for a whole new group of kids is great. We know it is going to get a lot tougher from here on out, but it is a hell of a start! It sure beats a bad start so we will take it and move forward"
Rockford jumped on the Red Men for a pair of runs in the first, three in the second and one in the third to take the early 6-1 lead through three.
Ben Levicki drove home the only run for Carthage early, with a double to score
Colton Klein, whom led off for the Red Men with a double of his own.
Kyle Damon entered for the Red Men in the second inning and worked 3.2 innings allowing just one earned run despite seven hits by the Regents.
In the fourth, the Red Men began to cut into the five-run deficit started by
Nick Pierce reaching on a hit by pitch. After a single by
Vince Schwartz and a walk to
Ryan Dalton,
Joe Godlevske singled to score Pierce. Next,
Brandon Hanik reached on an error that scored Schwartz and Dalton, and
Myles Farley completed the scoring in the fourth with a sac fly to score Godlevske.
In the fifth, the Red Men tied the game at six on a throwing error on a ball hit by Dalton, which scored
Cody Phelps, and then took the lead on Godlevske's first career home run. Giving the Red Men an 8-6 lead.
The Regents would eventually tie it after scoring runs in the top halves of the seventh and eighth innings and were looking to regain the lead, but a 5-4-3 double play started by Hanik got the Red Men out of the jam.
Carthage then loaded the bases in the eighth with one out, setting up
Nick Pierce to deliver the eventual game-winning hit, on an RBI single to second, which
Ryan Kramer broke up at the bag to keep the bases loaded. Next up, Schwartz singled to center scoring Klein and Kramer.
After walking the leadoff hitter in the ninth, closer Brian Polanski retired the next three hitters to earn his first career win. Polanksi went the final 1.2 innings allowing just one base runner to reach and escaping the eighth inning bases loaded jam.
The Red Men finished with 11 runs on ten hits and committed a single error, while the Regents scored eight times on 16 hits and committed four errors.
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