TUCSON, Ariz. – The Carleton College baseball team split a pair of games on the opening day of their Spring Break trip, defeating the Southwestern Assemblies of God – American Indian College Warriors 14-0 (7 inn.) and being edged out by the Edgewood College Eagles, 12-10.
Game 1 recap:
            This game was a contest between a program in Carleton with over a century of baseball history and a squad in its first year of existence in SAGU. The gulf in experience showed early, as the Knights rapped out four runs in the first inning against Warriors starter Robert Rust III, keyed by a long double by Steve Antrim and a laser triple off the center field wall by Ananth Iyer.
            Carleton tacked on two more in the third on a series of hits from Iyer, Sam Gossard, Ryan Chang and Aaron Rice. The Knights put the game to bed with a crooked number of seven in the fifth.
            Iyer went 3-5 with his triple, Antrim was 3-4 with three RBI, and leadoff hitter Sam Zacks went 2-2 with a pair of hit-by-pitches and an RBI sac fly.
            Reigning MIAC Rookie of the Year Sam Chutkow got the starting nod. Despite runners on in every inning, Chutkow worked 4.0 scoreless innings. The righty fanned five and earned the win, the first in his collegiate career. Seniors Ryan Antrim and Aaron Thorne combined to blank the Warriors over the final 3.0 innings to secure the shutout, Carleton's first since April 27, 2022, against rival St. Olaf College.
            The 14-run margin of victory for the Knights was their largest since a 21-0 trouncing of Lawrence University on May 3, 2015. (There was another 14-run win in 2019, 17-3 over the University of Minnesota-Morris on May 5).
Game 2 recap:
            The second contest against the Edgewood Eagles was a thriller. The game looked like a pitcher's duel for some time, as Edgewood hurler Ryan Mixey and Carleton's righthander Will Schnepf exchanged zeroes through four innings.
            The shutout was maintained in opposing fashions, as Carleton touched Mixey for hard contact many times, only to have deep fly balls and hard line drives settle into Eagle defenders' gloves. Meanwhile, the Dallas native Schnepf carved the Eagles up, throwing 5.0 hitless innings and punching out nine. The Knights would eventually find luck, tallying three runs in the fifth with the help of an Asher Stolberg line-drive double to the right field corner and a Sam Zacks hustle triple that dropped in front of a diving outfielder and kicked away to allow the speedy Zacks to fly into third.
            Fellow Texan Braden Sebesta relieved Schnepf and retired the side in the sixth, as the Knights put up another run through brilliant baserunning by pinch-runner Andrew Sellers. John Hurtubise reached on a walk and Sellers came to run for the catcher. He stole second, advanced to third on a well-read wild pitch, and hustled home when a throw to the catcher a caught fly ball went awry. Sebesta came back out for the seventh, but T.J. Tolliver broke up the no-hitter with a leadoff triple, and the Eagles proceeded to rack up six runs and take a 6-4 lead.
            Carleton responded immediately, with Stolberg singling again, moving to third on a Zacks single, and scoring on a Chutkow sac fly. The Knights nearly tied it as Jack Hommeyer hit what looked to be a sac fly with one out and Zacks on third, but Zacks left the bag a split second too early and was ruled out on appeal.
            The Eagles pushed across three more runs in both the eighth and ninth innings, while the Knights picked up one in their half of the eighth. The score was 12-6 heading into the bottom of the ninth, and Carleton nearly put together a stunning comeback, as six consecutive players reached base and they clawed back four runs. However, Edgewood hung on by the skin of their teeth, retiring the final batter with the tying run on second.
            Sam Gossard went 2-4 with a triple and walk, Asher Stolberg put together a 3-5 day, scoring twice, and Zacks was also 2-4 with his fourth hit by pitch in as many games.
Up Next for the Knights:
Carleton matches up against the Luther College Norse for already the second time this season tomorrow, with first pitch at 9:30 MST/11:30 CDT on Tucson's Kino Sports Complex Field #7.