The Carthage College baseball team (3-4) completed a two-day trip to Topeka, Kan., on Sunday, March 6 by splitting a doubleheader with Luther College (5-1) at the Bettis Family Sports Complex Jerry Robertson Field. Luther won the opening game, 2-0, but Carthage came back to take the nightcap by an 8-5 margin in a seven-inning contest.
In the opener, Norse relief pitcher Harrison Bloom (2-0) blanked the Firebirds on two hits over the final five frames. Carthage starting pitcher
Nick Hamilton (0-1) was almost as good. Hamilton allowed just two runs, one earned, on three hits, four walks and eight strikeouts over seven innings. Luther scored an unearned run in the fourth inning, while Joe Jersak singled in the other run in the seventh.
"
Nick Hamilton pitched great in the first game," said Carthage coach
Augie Schmidt IV. "We just couldn't scrape together any offense behind him.
In the nightcap, the Firebirds took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on an RBI-fielder's choice off the bat of
Colton Klein. The Norse tied the game in the bottom of the first. Carthage went up, 2-1, in the second on a sacrifice fly by
Cody Tostrud, but Luther knotted the score again in the bottom half. The Norse took a 3-2 lead in the third, but a
Joe Zuleger solo home run in the sixth re-tied the score, 3-3.
Carthage erupted with a five-run seventh inning to take an 8-3 lead. A base-loaded walk to Matthew Felber scored the go-ahead run, and another bases-full walk to
Jake Snider made it 5-3.
P.T. Boeye hit a two-run single to up the margin to 7-3, and
Evan Devine's sacrifice fly made it 8-3. Luther scored two runs on a wild pitch in the seventh to close out the scoring at 8-5.
Pitcher
Iyan Pelfree started the game for Carthage but was pulled in favor of
Troy Siranovic in the second inning. Siranovic allowed just one run on four hits over four innings, but the win went to
Jake Hartman Jr. (1-0), who worked the final two innings and allowed two runs on no hits and three walks. Carter Bratland (0-1), the third-of-four Norse hurlers, took the loss. The second game was delayed for a time, in progress, due to a combined lightning and ice storm.
Carthage plays next on Saturday, March 12 versus Chapman University (7-4) in Tucson, Ariz. The Chapman contest opens an eight-day, seven-game trip to Tucson Invitational at the Kino Sports Complex.