The Carthage College baseball team (36-8, 17-4 CCIW), ranked 10th in the May 13 “D3baseball.com” poll, opened play in the NCAA Division III Baseball Championship on Wednesday, May 14 with a 6-3 win over No. 16 Wisconsin-Oshkosh (29-10) at the Midwest Regional Championship at E.J. Schneider Stadium in Oshkosh, Wis. In the two earlier games on Wednesday, No. 9 the University of St. Thomas (32-7) pounded Knox College (15-24), 15-1, while No. 11 Wisconsin-Whitewater (36-8) defeated No. 22 the College of St. Scholastica (32-5) by a 7-4 margin. Carthage will play Wisconsin-Whitewater on Thursday, May 15 at 4 p.m. Knox will take on St. Scholastica at 10 a.m., followed by St. Thomas (Minn.) versus Wisconsin-Oshkosh at 1 p.m.

Wisconsin-Oshkosh took a 1-0 lead in the fist inning. Mickey Fadness reached second on an error by Red Men left fielder David Hermes, advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt and scored on a single by Brad Demmin. The Titans made it 3-0 in the second on a sacrifice fly by Fadness and an RBI-single by Derek Leighton. A solo home run by Hermes in the second made it 3-1. With two outs in the Carthage third, Boe Baitinger singled. Chris Shannon singled down the right-field line, sending Baitinger to third. Jason Acevado then delivered a two-run double, on a one-and-two count, to the right-field gap to score both runner for a 3-3 tie. Mike Hughes was given a semi-intentional walk, and Mike McGuire drove a double to the right-field gap to score both runner for a 5-3 lead.

Meanwhile, Carthage starting pitcher Jacob Husing really settled in, allowing just a singled, a walk and two hit batters through the end of the seventh. The Titans put two runners on with one out in the eighth, but Husing got a fly out and a strikeout to end the inning. The Red Men tacked on a run the bottom of the eighth on a fielder’s choice grounder off the bat of Hermes. Titan second baseman Kyle Kannenberg dropped the throw from short, allowing Chris Shannon to score from third. In the Wisconsin-Oshkosh ninth, Husing walked the first batter, Brad Demmin, but retired the next three in order to nail down the win. Husing (7-1) allowed three runs, two earned, on six hits and five walks, while striking out nine batters. Jason Acevado and Mike McGuire each drove in two runs, while Chris Shannon went two-for-four.

“We’ve had a lot of rocky starts this year," said Carthage coach Augie Schmidt IV. "We are what we are. We’re not real good, defensively, and it shows up, at times. It’s better to have that happen earlier than later in a game. We fall behind, and then we hit the ball enough to get back into games. That’s what we are. We shake off the bad defense, laugh about it and continue playing. It’s a negative-positive. We got great pitching from Jacob Husing. Jacob is never sharp early in a game. His best innings are five through nine. He doesn’t expend a lot of energy warming up. Today’s early runs weren’t all his fault, but he’s used to giving up runs early. He went nine, though, and that showed me something. David Hermes hitting the home run got us going, and then we had a really good third inning, scoring four runs with two outs. Scoring runs with two outs wins tournament games. Playing Wisconsin-Oshkosh was great. It’s a great rivalry, and it says something about our two programs.”