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Carthagte Drilled by UW-Whitewater, 24-3, on Thursday at NCAA Midwest Regional
May 15, 2008
Press Release posted by Carthage Permalink
The Carthage College baseball team (36-9, 17-4 CCIW), ranked 10th in the May 13 “D3baseball.com” poll, lost to No. 11 Wisconsin-Whitewater (37-8), 24-3, on Thursday, May 15 in a second-round game at the NCAA Division III Midwest Regional Championship at E.J. Schneider Field in Oshkosh, Wis. Earlier on Thursday, No. 22 the College of St. Scholastica (33-5) eliminated Knox College (15-25), 15-7, and No. 9 the University of St. Thomas (Minn., 33-7) eliminated No. 16 Wisconsin-Oshkosh (29-11), 3-1. In first-round games on Thursday, May 14, Carthage defeated Wisconsin-Oshkosh, 6-3; St. Thomas (Minn.) pounded Knox, 15-1; and Wisconsin-Whitewater defeated St. Scholastica by a 7-4 margin. On Friday, May 16, the two undefeated teams, St. Thomas (Minn.) and Wisconsin-Whitewater, match up at 10 a.m., followed by Carthage versus St. Scholastica at 1 p.m. The loser of the 10 a.m. game will play the winner of the Carthage-St. Scholastica contest at 4 p.m.
After two scoreless innings, Wisconsin-Whitewater took a 1-0 lead in the third. The Warhawks loaded the bases off Red Men hurler Trace Ruffie, who then hit Kevin Zalnis with a pitch to force in the first run. Ben Prather followed with a two-run single and a 3-0 lead. Joe Munn delivered the big blow, a grand slam home run, to up the lead to 7-0. Billy Johnson added an RBI-single for an 8-0 margin. There were two walks, two hit batters and two errors in the third inning. Ruffie’s troubles continued in the fourth inning, and he was lifted for Bryan Kieffer with one out.
Wisconsin-Whitewater scored six times in the fourth to take a 14-0 lead. The Warhawks added two in the fifth, four in the sixth and two in both the seventh and eighth frames. Carthage scored its three runs in the eighth. The loss was the worst for the Red Men since losing a pair of 19-run run games in the 1980s, falling to Wisconsin-Madison, 20-1, on May 8, 1986, and losing to Southeastern Oklahoma, 21-2, on April 4, 1985. Ruffie (6-1) allowed 10 runs, eight earned, over three and one-third innings on six hits, four walks and three hit batters. Kieffer went two and two-thirds innings and surrendered nine runs on 10 hits. Dan Dahm worked the seventh inning, and designated hitter Ty Heegeman pitched the eighth.
“When you lose by 20 runs,” said Carthage coach Augie Schmidt IV, “they should probably give you two losses. Trace Ruffie just didn’t have it today, and it went downhill from there. It’s a bad loss, but it’s only our first loss in the tournament. Tomorrow, we have a clean slate. Mario Perez will pitch on Friday, and hopefully, he’ll have a better day than this was. We still have bullets left in the gun. Wisconsin-Whitewater is very good. If you give them what we gave them, they’ll beat you. This one just got away from us. We just need to live to see another day.”
After two scoreless innings, Wisconsin-Whitewater took a 1-0 lead in the third. The Warhawks loaded the bases off Red Men hurler Trace Ruffie, who then hit Kevin Zalnis with a pitch to force in the first run. Ben Prather followed with a two-run single and a 3-0 lead. Joe Munn delivered the big blow, a grand slam home run, to up the lead to 7-0. Billy Johnson added an RBI-single for an 8-0 margin. There were two walks, two hit batters and two errors in the third inning. Ruffie’s troubles continued in the fourth inning, and he was lifted for Bryan Kieffer with one out.
Wisconsin-Whitewater scored six times in the fourth to take a 14-0 lead. The Warhawks added two in the fifth, four in the sixth and two in both the seventh and eighth frames. Carthage scored its three runs in the eighth. The loss was the worst for the Red Men since losing a pair of 19-run run games in the 1980s, falling to Wisconsin-Madison, 20-1, on May 8, 1986, and losing to Southeastern Oklahoma, 21-2, on April 4, 1985. Ruffie (6-1) allowed 10 runs, eight earned, over three and one-third innings on six hits, four walks and three hit batters. Kieffer went two and two-thirds innings and surrendered nine runs on 10 hits. Dan Dahm worked the seventh inning, and designated hitter Ty Heegeman pitched the eighth.
“When you lose by 20 runs,” said Carthage coach Augie Schmidt IV, “they should probably give you two losses. Trace Ruffie just didn’t have it today, and it went downhill from there. It’s a bad loss, but it’s only our first loss in the tournament. Tomorrow, we have a clean slate. Mario Perez will pitch on Friday, and hopefully, he’ll have a better day than this was. We still have bullets left in the gun. Wisconsin-Whitewater is very good. If you give them what we gave them, they’ll beat you. This one just got away from us. We just need to live to see another day.”