PICTURED ABOVE: Daniel Bayer struck out nine in a complete game shutout of Carthage on Wednesday night.

Carol Stream, Ill. - The Wheaton baseball team claimed a crucial series win on Wednesday night with a 4-0 shutout of Carthage. With the win, Wheaton wins the series two games to one and improves to 17-9 overall and 6-3 in the CCIW. Carthage falls to 11-12 overall and 4-5 in conference play. Wheaton remains in second place in the CCIW heading into this weekend's series against Elmhurst which kicks off with a 6 pm first pitch on Friday at Lee Pfund Stadium.

Wheaton tallied four runs on eight hits with no errors. The visiting Red Men recorded just four hits and made two errors. Luke Mentkowski took the loss for Carthage, allowing two runs on six hits with five strikeouts. Daniel Bayer earned the victory with a complete game effort featuring four hits, two walks and nine strikeouts. Similar to Christian Bolhuis' shutout against Carthage last week, Bayer did not allow a runner to reach third base.

Wheaton took the lead in the bottom of the second inning when Kyle Mellinger and Andrew Laucella led off the inning with consecutive singles. JD Carpenter's sacrifice bunt moved the runners into scoring position and Josh Kimmel plated Mellinger with an RBI groundout.

Carpenter would convert an RBI opportunity in the bottom of the fourth inning when he reached on a fielder's choice to plate Ben Brittain and give Wheaton a 2-0 lead. Wheaton's last two runs came in the bottom of the seventh when Kyle Trivits led off the inning with a bunt single and advanced to second when the throw sailed into right field. Trivits came around to score when Nick Mailman also laid down a bunt and advanced to second on an errant throw. Mailman would later come around to score on a single by Mellinger (PICTURED RIGHT) to make it 4-0.

After allowing a single in each of the first two innings, Bayer scattered just a single in the fifth and a single in the seventh the rest of the way and retired the last seven batters of the game including consecutive strikeouts to end the game.

Wheaton will next be in action on Friday night when the Thunder host the Elmhurst Bluejays at 6 pm at Lee Pfund Stadium. Wheaton will conclude the series with a Saturday doubleheader starting at 1 pm.