It didn’t take the Carthage College baseball team long to assert itself in the first round of the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin Tournament on Friday.

The third-seeded Red Men scored four times in the first inning en route to an 11-2 win over second-seeded North Park in a first-round game at North Central’s Zimmerman Stadium/Alumni Field in Naperville, Ill.

Carthage, in search of its 10th CCIW championship under coach Augie Schmidt, will play Illinois Wesleyan at 12:30 p.m. today. The fourth-seeded Titans defeated top-seeded North Central 16-5 on Friday.

The double-elimination tournament continues through Sunday. The champion receives the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament.

Carthage’s big first included a two-run single from Josh Albers and one RBI each from Will Hodges and Zach Kozlowski.

The Red Men (27-14) led 6-0 before North Park (27-14) scored two in the fourth.

Carthage added one run in the sixth inning and four in the seventh. Bill Herrin’s three-run double highlighted the seventh as Carthage won its opening game in the CCIW Tournament for the seventh time in the last eight seasons.

Mario Perez (4-3) started and went five innings for the win. He was relieved by Danny Dahm who tossed four shutout innings with a strikeout for the save.

Carthage was coming off a weekend series in which it had dropped two of three games to North Park with its only win coming on a 15-14 decision.

— By David Marran