The Carthage College baseball team (10-21, 4-9 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin) won the rubber game of a three-game series with conference-opponent Elmhurst University (10-17, 3-9) by winning a 12-6 decision over the Bluejays on Sunday, April 24 at Augie Schmidt Field in Kenosha, Wis. The two wins over the weekend pulled the Firebirds into eighth place in the league.
Carthage took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on a sacrifice fly by
Bryce Prybylinski. Prybylinski singled in another run in the third, and
Jax Calverley doubled in a run to give the Firebirds a 3-0 lead. Paul Fomby's solo home to deep right field in the fourth brought the Bluejays to within two, 3-1. Elmhurst tied the game, 3-3, in the fifth on a solo homer by Jesse James and an RBI-single by Trevor Lorek.
Carthage re-gained the lead, 4-3, in the bottom of the fifth on an RBI-single by
Bryce Prybylinski, his third RBI of the game.
P.J. Moser followed with a long, three-run home run to right-center field to bump the Firebirds' margin to 7-3. Troy Taller doubled in a run for Elmhurst in the sixth, cutting the lead to 7-4 and ending the day for Carthage starting pitcher
Dante Guarascio. Drew Raspolich followed with an RBI-single and James a run-scoring grounder to make it 7-6.
Bryce Prybylinski knocked in his fourth run of the game with an RBI-double in the sixth to give Carthage an 8-6 margin.
Kody Krekling hit an RBI-double in the seventh to up the lead to 9-6. In the eighth,
Colton Klein and
Bryce Prybylinski hit back-to-back solo home runs to make it an 11-6 game, and
Kody Krekling singled in another for a 12-6 margin.
The Firebirds collected 16 hits in the game, with
Bryce Prybylinski leading the way by going four-for-four with two runs scored, a double, a home run and five RBI.
Colton Klein had three hits in three trips to the plate with four runs scored and a solo home run.
Cody Tostrud extended his hitting streak to 11 games with a single in the third.
Dante Guarascio (3-4) was the winning pitcher despite giving up six runs on five hits and five walks over five and one-third innings.
Brandon Marquardt blanked the Bluejays on a hit and walk over the final three and two-thirds innings to earn his first save. Elmhurst starter J.D. Knight (2-2), the first-of-five Bluejays hurlers, took the loss.
"It feels good to win a series," admitted Carthage coach
Augie Schmidt IV. "It's been awhile. We've played good baseball over the past few weeks, and so many of our freshmen are starting to come through, which is cool to see happen. Young players seem to have to take their lumps before something good happens, but the freshmen are giving us a nice, little boost at the moment. Young players have to go through the hard stuff to get to the good part, and now we're starting to see some of the good stuff."
Carthage plays host to non-conference opponent Concordia University (Chicago, 12-17) on Tuesday, April 26 in a 4 p.m. game, also at Augie Schmidt Field.
