TUCSON, Ariz. – The Carthage College baseball team capitalized on early run support and a strong debut by Matt Willett to top Northwestern College of Iowa on Wednesday, 15-10.
 
The win moves the Red Men to 3-2 on they year, while the Red Raiders fall to 3-7.
 
In his college debut, sophomore Matt Willett dominated, throwing six-plus innings allowing just five runs on six hits, including just one extra base hit to earn his first win.
 
"Matt Willett went out there as a freshman and showed all these upper classmen how to pitch today," said head coach Augie Schmidt after the win.  "He attacked the zone and had a great day.  Getting six innings from a freshman in this part of the trip is huge.  Our pitching has been beat up so to get that performance was awesome to see.  We flailed around a little bit, but we hit the ball well enough to get the win even if it wasn't pretty."
 
The Red Men offense provided plenty of offense for Willett early, as Carthage jumped out to a 9-0 lead through 4.5 innings.  After three runs in the first inning off RBIs by Nick Pierce and a two-run RBI double by Ben Levicki, the Red Men exploded for five in the third to open the game up.  Joe Sisk opened opened the scoring in the inning with a two-RBI double, followed by runs batted in by Joe Godlevske and Colton Klein, while Myles Farley scored on a double play.
 
Northwestern struck for three in the fifth to begin to cut into the Red Men's lead, but Carthage answered with a pair in the sixth as Godlevske drove in Sisk, and Colton Klein scored Godlevske for an 11-3 lead.
 
The Red Raiders continued to chip away at the lead as pitching woes struck the Red Men in the seventh, allowing four runs on no hits and two errors, while walking four and hitting one batter.
 
Cody Phelps delivered a one-out single in the eighth to score Klein and Luke Beckmann and provide a pair of insurance runs late as two runs by the Red Raiders in the eighth knocked out reliever Frankie Rios for closer Brian Polaski.
 
In the ninth it was Colton Klein again, knocking a sinlge up the middle to score Myles Farley and Brandon Hanik for the 15-10 lead.
 
Polaski went the final 2.0 innings allowing one inherited runner to score in the eighth and struck out three for his second save of the season.
 
Sisk finished with the best day at the plate, going 4-5 with two triples, two RBIs and two runs scored.  Colton Klein, Nick Pierce and Myles Farley each had three hit games and Klein led all players with four runs batted in.

Carthage finished with 15 runs on 21 hits and committed three errors, while Northwestern scored ten runs on 11 hits and committed two errors.
 
The Red Men will return to action on Thursday with a doubleheader against North Central University.  First pitch from Tucson is set for 10:00 a.m.