NAPERVILLE, Ill. – The Carthage College Red Men opened with a big win at the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin Baseball Tournament, hosted by North Central College on Thursday, defeating the Augustana College Vikings at Zimmerman Stadium, 5-2.
 
With the win, the Red Men stay in the winner's bracket and move to 31-10 on the season, while Augustana will face elimination Friday morning after falling to 25-15.
 
"Kevin Tibor, turning double plays and timely hitting was the story," said head coach Augie Schmidt IV following the win.  "Playing against a good team and facing a really good pitcher we were able to get just enough hits and score some runs, but then it came down to Tibor just pitching his tail off and we turned three double plays.  When you can put that together and not commit any errors you will win some games.  That has been the m.o. for this team; go out and play solid baseball.  We are very inexperienced and we showed it against a really good pitcher, yet we still scrounged up enough to get a win."
 
Carthage struck first with a run in the first with a two-out rally, started by Cody Phelps reaching on an error and after a single by Nick Pierce, Vince Schwartz singled to center to drive Phelps in for the first run of the game.
 
Augustana answered in the second with a pair of runs off starter Kevin Tibor.  From there, Tibor was dominant.  The senior faced just three over the minimum during the final seven innings in which he held the Vikings scoreless, inducing three tailor-made double play balls that Myles Farley and Ryan Kramer turned, he struck out five, including striking out the side in the fourth and allowed just one walk. 
 
"Hats off to Tibor.  He didn't have the best last few outings, but he came out today and gave us nine innings.  That's huge," noted the head coach.
 
The Red Men regained the lead in the third as Carthage loaded the bases to start the inning and three-straight RBI's from Pierce, Schwartz and Joe Sisk gave the Red Men a 4-2 lead through three innings. 
 
Carthage added an insurance run in the sixth after Ryan Dalton reached on the fourth error committed by the Vikings in the game and was driven in on by Ben Levicki on a double down the left field line.
 
The Red Men will return to action in Friday's second game, as they face game-one winner and hosts, North Central College.  The winner will move on to Saturday's championship round, while the loser will face the day's first winner in an elimination game.  Carthage and North Central first pitch will come 30 minutes following the 9:00 a.m. at approximately noon.