PICTURED ABOVE: Kyle Mellinger's two-out, two-run single in the bottom of the eighth inning gave Wheaton a 12-11 victory over Benedictine on Tuesday night.
Carol Stream, Ill. - The Thunder baseball team won its fourth straight contest on Tuesday evening with a 12-11 slugfest victory over the visiting Benedictine University Eagles. Wheaton saw an early 8-1 advantage disappear into a late 11-10 deficit before the hosts rallied for two runs in the bottom of the eighth inning for the one-run victory. With the win, Wheaton improves to 11-6 on the season. Benedictine is now 5-5. Wheaton will wrap-up its ten-game homestand on Friday night when the Thunder open CCIW play with a 6 pm game against the Millikin Big Blue.
Wheaton tallied 12 runs on 13 hits with two errors defensively. Benedictine scored 11 runs on 13 hits with three defensive miscues.
Nick Johnson earned the victory for Wheaton, pitching a scoreless eighth and ninth innings while striking three and allowing only two walks. James Holub took the loss for Benedictine by allowing two runs, one earned on three hits with one walk and two strikeouts in 1.2 innings of work.
Wheaton got off to a quick start by following a 1-2-3 top of the first inning with a run on
Kyle Mellinger's sacrifice fly in the bottom of the first inning. After the Eagles knotted the game with a run in the top of the second, Wheaton retook the lead
John McKenna (PICTURED RIGHT) hit his second home run of the season, a two-run shot to left field, to give Wheaton a 3-1 lead.
A five-run bottom of the third inning pushed the Thunder lead to 8-1 after three innings.
Ben Brittain and Mellinger opened the inning with a hit by pitch and single followed by an RBI single by
Clay Morrison.
JD Carpenter plated Mellinger with a sacrifice fly and
Josh Kimmel singled through the right side of the infield. After a McKenna sacrifice fly,
Graham True collected his first collegiate hit with a towering solo home run to left field to give the hosts a seven-run lead.
Benedictine came charging back in the top of the fourth inning with a six-run inning highlighted by a three-run home run to cut the Thunder lead to 8-7. Morrison's RBI single in the bottom of the fourth and
Nick Mailman's RBI groundout in the bottom of the fifth slowed the Eagles momenum and gave the Thunder a 10-7 lead after five innings. Two runs in the top of the sixth and two more in the top of the seventh inning would give Benedictine its first lead of the game at 11-10 heading into the seventh inning stretch.
Wheaton's comeback would start with two outs in the bottom of the eight inning on a walk to
Jacob Zeller followed by a single by Brittain to center field. Mellinger then came up with the big hit on a line drive double to right field that plated Zeller and also brought Brittain in to score when the ball was bobbled by the right fielder. Johnson would issue a one-out walk but quickly slammed the door with back-to-back strikeouts to end the game.
Five Thunder players collected two hits on the evening. Mellinger and McKenna led the Thunder with three RBIs apiece followed by Morrison wiht two runs batted in.
Josh Kimmel and
Ben Brittain each scored three runs.
Wheaton will be back in action on Friday night for the first of a three-game series against the Millikin Big Blue at Lee Pfund Stadium with the first pitch scheduled for 6 pm.
