Journal Times staff

The Carthage College baseball team won its first game in the NCAA Division III Central Regional Championship Thursday.

But Red Men coach Augie Schmidt IV wasn't overly thrilled.

After taking an 8-2 lead in the fifth inning, the Red Men held on for an 8-7 victory.

"I don't know what the deal was,'' Schmidt said. "Maybe we fell into that six vs. one seeding stuff.

"If that's the case, then I have a lot of coaching to do. I thought we'd be more prepared. We're going to have to play a whole lot better than this if we're going to stick around in this regional.''

The Red Men (33-6) will play its next game today against UW-Whitewater.

The Red Men score two runs in the second inning, thanks to Trevor Whately's two-run single. They widened the lead to 6-2 in the fourth inning.

Carthage got back-to-back RBI singles in the inning from Mike Hughes and John Lequia, a former Park High School standout.

Lequia went 3-for-5 in the game.

The Red Men looked like they were going to blow the game open in the fifth when they moved to an 8-2 advantage. Joe Ferro delivered the key hit in the inning, a two-run single.

Carthage pitcher Jordan Jaehne-Llanas (7-2) worked the first six innings and allowed the Griffins (25-18) two runs on two walks.

"The only good positive is that we won the game,'' Schmidt said. "But I'm not very happy about anything else.''