BOXSCORE

River Forest, Ill. - The Thunder baseball team lost a 15-4 decision at Concordia-Chicago on Wednesday afternoon. Wednesday's game was originally scheduled for Tuesday and was to be hosted by Wheaton, however, the contest for Tuesday was rained out and moved to Wednesday at Cougar Field.

Wheaton is now 12-17 on the season. The Thunder will return to conference play on Thursday with a 2 PM first pitch at North Central College. Wheaton and North Central will conclude their three-game series on Saturday with a doubleheader that is slated to begin at 1 PM. Concordia-Chicago now holds a 20-4 record. The Cougars are ranked 25th in this week's D3baseball.com Top 25 poll.

Concordia-Chicago scored 15 runs in today's game, on 12 hits, with no errors and the Thunder plated four runs, on six hits, with two errors. Sophomore Jimmy McDonald (1-2) started the game on the mound for the Thunder, taking the loss in 3-1/3 innings. McDonald allowed eight runs, with two earned runs, on seven hits. John Pohl pitched 2/3 of an inning in relief, allowing three runs, on two hits, with one strikeout. Freshman Andrew Bayer worked two innings of relief, allowing four runs, on three hits.

Junior Justin Zeller, hit a home run and drew three walks with two runs batted in on the day. Senior Brian Whartnaby added a double. Drew Golz was 1-for-2, with a walk and two runs scored.

The Cougars jumped out to a 6-0 lead after two innings of play. Wheaton cut Concordia's lead to 6-2 with a pair of runs in the top of the fourth inning thanks to a two-run home run for Zeller. The Cougars responded with four runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to increase their lead to 10-2.

Wheaton added run in the top of the fifth inning on Whartnaby's RBI-double. Concordia countered in the bottom of the fifth inning with five more runs to extend its lead to 15-3. The final score of 15-4 was the result of a Wheaton run in the top of the sixth inning on a bases loaded walk that was drawn by freshman Desmond Cato

Freshman pitcher Brendan Schulz (4-0) was the winning pitcher for the Cougars in five innings. He allowed three runs, on five hits. Catcher Nick Skala was 4-for-4 with eight RBI has he hit a pair of home runs.