Since coach Augie Schmidt IV took over the Carthage baseball program in 1988, he's had several teams that made runs for the national championship.  His 1993,

1994, 1995 and 1997 squads all advanced to the semifinals of the NCAA Division III Baseball Championship.  What was probably his best team, however, never got out of the regionals.  The 1999 Carthage baseball team was loaded with talent.  Really loaded. 
 
Ranked 20th in the American Baseball Coaches Association pre-season poll, the 1999 Firebirds (45-6-1) opened the season with a 16-game unbeaten streak, lost a game at North Central College on April 2, and then ran off 15-straight wins.  Following a loss to North Park University on April 25, Carthage put together a 10-game winning streak.  The team broke a 1997 record of 40 wins before the regular season ended and won its first CCIW title since 1995 over second-place Augustana College (Ill.).
 
Carthage was rolling through the NCAA Division III Central Regional championship at Elfstrom Stadium in Geneva, Ill., when disaster struck, and the season turned on one pitch.  The Firebirds were trailing Aurora University, 1-0, in the third inning of the winner's bracket game between the two undefeated teams.  In that inning, lefty-hurler and University of Minnesota-transfer Adam Williams threw a pitch and then clutched his left elbow in pain and fell to the ground.  He got up and tried to throw a couple of warm-up tosses before heading for the dugout—his season and his career suddenly over. 
 
The next inning, Aurora tagged relief pitcher Ryan Hungerford for five runs, en route to a 6-4 win.  In the bottom of the ninth, with the Redmen trailing, 6-3, Carthage's Joe Smith tripled in a run to cut the lead to 6-4, but the game ended with Adam Smith at the plate.  A pitched ball hit his bat and went straight up in the air for an easy foul pop.  Carthage battled back into the championship round the next day but lost to the Spartans, 5-4.  Redmen pitcher Curt Thomas was working on a no-hitter when a blister forced him out of the game in the sixth inning.  Aurora broke a 4-4 tie with a run in the eighth to win that game.
 
The 1999 team punished opponents at the plate.  All nine starters, seven of them left-handed hitters, hit .324 or better.  As a team, Carthage finished second nationally in batting (a school-record .377), second in home runs (1.58 per game), second in slugging percentage (a school-record .610) and sixth in runs scored (a school-record 531, 10.21 per game), along with school records of 18 triples, 1,057 total bases and a .448 team on-base percentage.  Here's the batting order from 1999:



Leadoff
Second-team All-CCIW center fielder Joe Smith (Junior in 1999 from Kenosha, Wis./Bradford) batted .374 with 59 runs scored, a team-high 17 doubles, six home runs, 39 RBI and 10 stolen bases.  Smith's playing career came to an end the following year when he broke an ankle sliding into home during a spring break game in Panama City, Fla.
 
Second
First-team All-CCIW left fielder Adam Smith (Sr., Schaumburg, Ill.) also batted .374 with 62 runs scored, 11 doubles, six home runs and 54 RBI.  Smith was later a part-time assistant coach for the Firebirds, head coach at Concordia University (Chicago) from 2011 to 2105 and since 2016, head coach at Benedictine University (Ill.).

Third
First-team American Baseball Coaches Association All-American and first-team All-CCIW third baseman Dean Muthig (Sr., Embarrass, Wis./Clintonville) hit .405 with 68 runs scored, a team-high 17 doubles, 13 home runs, 67 RBI and a .698 slugging percentage.  Muthig was selected by the Philadelphia Philles in that year's Major League Baseball Draft and played for two years in the Philles' farm system before an elbow injury ended his playing career in 2000.

Cleanup
First-team All-CCIW first baseman Rick Ramczyk (Sr., Appleton, Wis./West) batted .375 with 57 runs scored, 13 doubles, seven home runs and 52 RBI.

Fifth
Catcher Kevin Sullivan (Jr., Stevens Point, Wis./Pacelli) batted .359 with 56 runs scored, 12 doubles, nine home runs and 61 RBI.  The next year, Sullivan was named ABCA third-team All-American and CCIW "Co-Player of the Year" before being drafted by the Philadelphia Philles.  Sullivan finished his fifth year in minor league baseball in 2004 and is currently an assistant coach at Benedictine (Ill.).



Sixth
Looking back at what he accomplished in 1999, it's hard to believe that right fielder Glen Braun (Sr., Cato, Wis./Valders) batted sixth.  Braun hit a team-leading .458 with a school-record 88 base hits, a school-record 70 runs scored, 13 doubles, a school-record eight triples, a school-record 21 home runs, a school-record 80 RBI, a school-record .938 slugging percentage, a school-record 180 total bases and a team-high .505 on-base percentage.  He led the nation in home runs and set a Carthage record with a 26-game hitting streak. He was named ABCA NCAA Division III "Player of the Year," as well as ABCA first-team All-American, CCIW "player of the year," and first-team All-CCIW.  Oddly enough, Braun was not selected in the 1999 Major League Baseball draft.

Seventh
First-team All-CCIW second baseman Ryan Lessner (Jr., Watertown, Wis.) hit .413 with 39 runs scored, 14 doubles, five home runs and 56 RBI.  Lessner returned for his senior season in 2000 and was named an ABCA second-team All-American and first-team All-CCIW.

Eighth
Catcher Jason Lensmeyer (So., Kellnersville, Wis./Reedsville) and left fielder Tom Les (Sr., Burbank, Ill./Reavis) shared designated-hitter duties in 1999.  Lensmeyer batted .356 with eight doubles and 22 RBI, while Les, who was named first-team all-conference, checked in with a .324 batting mark, eight home runs and 31 RBI.  Lensmeyer returned for his junior year in 2000 and sat out the 2001 campaign with a shoulder injury.  He returned to the team in 2002 and was named ABCA first-team All-American and CCIW "Player of the Year."  Les played for the Cook County Cheetahs in both 1999 and 2000 and was a member of the European-championship Greek national team in 2002 before returning to the Cheetahs in 2003.

Ninth
Freshman shortstop Dave Fellin (Fr., Whitewater, Wis.) rounded out the batting order with a .352 mark, seven doubles and 20 RBI.  Fellin went on to a four-year playing career with the Redmen that ended in 2003 when he was named first-team All-CCIW.

Pitching Staff

Pitching coach Brian Mosher's 1999 staff wasn't too shabby, either.  Seven pitchers finished the year with four or more wins.  Adam Williams (So., Appleton, Wis./West), a transfer from the University of Minnesota, led the staff.  Williams was named first-team All-CCIW with a 9-2 record and a 2.74 earned run average, while Dave Griffin (Jr., Zion, Ill./Zion-Benton Township), a transfer from the College of Lake County, was named second-team all-conference with a 7-1 mark and a 2.40 ERA.  Jason Wiertel (Fr., Buffalo Grove, Ill.), who went on to become a first-team All-CCIW pick in 2001, as well as a four-time first-team All-CCIW basketball player and 2000 National Association of Basketball Coaches All-American.  Wiertel went 7-0 with a 1.03 ERA during the 1999 season.  R.J. Cropper (So., Schaumburg, Ill./Conant), a transfer from St. Joseph's College (Ind.) went 6-0 with a 1.80 ERA, Bryon Gaddy (Sr.. Kenosha, Wis./Bradford) 4-0 with a 2.20 ERA, Curt Thomas (Jr., Worthington, Ohio) 5-1 with a 3.23 ERA, and Ryan Hungerford (Fr., Little Chute, Wis.) compiled a 5-0 mark with a 4.11 ERA.  Thomas returned for his senior season in 2000 and was named first-team all-conference.
 
Coach Augie Schmidt IV on the 1999 team
"I  was very, very proud of the 1999 team," said coach Schmidt at the end of that season.  "They were incredible all year long.  They carried a lot of weight on their shoulders and responded very well.  The 45 wins were fantastic, but it came down to a weekend tournament where anything can happen, and whatever anything is or was, we saw it that weekend.  It was an unbelievable season."
 
"What I remember most about the 1999 team is how well we hit the ball," said coach Schmidt in 2004.  "That was the best-hitting team, one through nine, that we've ever had.  In some of the games, it was a total mismatch.  We faced some good pitchers and just ruined their years.  It was also the best team we've ever had that didn't get to the NCAA Division III Baseball Championship.  The kids from that team still talk about all the freaky things that went wrong for us on that weekend, and it still hurts.  If Adam Williams hadn't injured his elbow against Aurora, I think we would have been in great shape.  Baseball is a funny game, and the best team doesn't always win, but when I saw that year's national championship in Salem, Va., I knew the best team in the country wasn't even there."