Box Score
Carol Stream, Ill. - The Wheaton Thunder baseball team lost to #17-Illinois Wesleyan, 17-10 on Friday afternoon at Legion Field. With the wind blowing out at Legion, both teams' bats exploded for a combined 34 hits, including four home runs. The win moves Illinois Wesleyan to 20-6 on the season and 12-1 in the CCIW, while dropping the Thunder to 16-10 overall and 5-7 in conference play. Wheaton travels to Bloomington on Saturday for a 1:00 p.m. doubleheader against the Titans.
After giving up a run in each of the first two innings to fall behind 2-0, the Thunder bats came alive in the bottom of the second to take a 5-2 lead. Senior catcher Nate Pugh got the scoring started when he singled home sophomore Mark Price and later came into score himself when senior Dan Falvey dialed deep for his second homerun of the year. A RBI double from senior Luke Munch and a run- scoring single from sophomore Brian Kolb (pictured) rounded out the five-run second.
The Titans came back with a run in the third against Wheaton's starter Tim Urbanowicz, but the Thunder quickly answered by putting up another pair on a two-run blast from senior Matt Bradley. Battling a 7-3 deficit going into the top of the fifth inning, the Illinois Wesleyan bats came alive and stayed that way as they put up two runs in the fifth and five more in the sixth to take a 10-7 lead.
The Thunder proved resiliant once again when playing from behind by knotting the game at 10-10 with three runs in the bottom of the sixth compliments of RBI singles from Kolb, Price and Pugh. But the Titans weren't through with their offensive barrage. A six run, seven hit seventh off of Thunder reliever freshman Zach Fallon put the game away for good. Wesleyan added a run in the eigth to run the score to the final tally of 17-10.
Urbanowicz was strong through his first five innings but got into trouble in the sixth when the first three Titan batters reached base. The Thunder starter left the game with no outs in the sixth having struck out two, walked three and allowed eight runs (seven earned) on eight hits. Both Fallon and freshman Steve Dennison pitched a pair of innings to finish off the game. Dennison struck out two, walked none and allowed only one run on four hits.
Price led the offense for the Thunder, going 3-for-5, scoring twice and driving in a run. Falvey went 2-for-4 with two RBI and two runs scored, while Pugh, Bradley and Kolb all went 2-for-5
