The Carthage College baseball team begins play Friday in the NCAA Division III Baseball Championship at Fox Cities Stadium in Grand Chute.

The Red Men (36-7), ranked fourth in the May 19 American Baseball Coaches Association/Collegiate Baseball NCAA Division III poll and seventh in the May 5 "D3baseball.com" poll, open against Mideast Regional champion and No. 3 ranked College of Wooster (39-9) at 10 a.m. in the first round of the double-elimination tournament.

The Red Men are making their seventh appearance in the Division III championships after winning the Central Regional Monday at Moline, Ill., with an 8-3 victory over UW-Whitewater.

In the other first-round games Friday, No. 2 Kean University (38-9) plays No. 1 Trinity College (33-5) at 1:15 p.m., No. 6 Shenandoah University (37-8) takes on No. 12 Farmingdale State College (30-15) at 4:30 p.m., and No. 9 Chapman University (30-15) plays No. 5 the University of St. Thomas (Minn., 36-12) at 7:45 p.m.

Play continues with four games Saturday - at 10 a.m., 1:15 p.m., 4:30 p.m. and 7:45 p.m.

Track & field

CARTHAGE: Senior Jon Kochmit (Park Ridge, Ill.) placed ninth in the hammer throw (172-2) at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships at Marietta, Ohio.

Kochmit's finish earned him United States Track Coaches Association All-America honors.

Junior Buzzy Brown (Naperville, Ill.) competed in the long jump, but did not qualify for the finals.

Sophomore Heather Gilmore (Des Moines, Iowa) will compete in the women's 100-meter high hurdles Friday.