PICTURED ABOVE: John Schmitz allowed one run in eight innings of relief in Wheaton's 5-4 win over Augustana on Saturday.

Carol Stream, Ill. - The Thunder baseball team split a doubleheader on Saturday afternoon against the Augustana Vikings. Wheaton rallied to force extra innings in game one and earned a 5-4 walk-off victory before falling 4-3 in game two to drop the series. Both teams end the weekend with identical records of 16-9 overall and 5-3 in conference play. Wheaton will next be in action on Wednesday when the Thunder host the Carthage Red Men in the rubber match of a three-game series.

Wheaton tallied five runs on nine hits with one error in game one while the Vikings totalled four runs on seven hits with two errors. In the nightcap, the Vikings scored four runs on nine hits with two errors and Wheaton posted three runs on seven hits with two errors.

Kyle Mellinger's sacrifice fly gave Wheaton a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning in game one but the Vikings answered with three runs on no hits in the top of the second inning to take a two-run lead. An RBI single by Andrew Laucella cut the lead to 3-2 after three innings.

Pitching dominated the middle innings of the game before Wheaton rallied in the bottom of the ninth inning. John Schmitz held the Vikings in check by striking out seven and allowing just one run in eight innings of relief work. Jon Metz (PICTURED RIGHT) started the inning with a single to left before giving way to pinch runner Brett Albaugh. Albaught would steal second and move to third base on a ground out. Pinch hitting with two outs in the inning, JD Carpenter lined a doubled to left field to tie the game at 3-3 and force extra innings.

Augustana opened the top of the 10th inning with a triple to right center and took a 4-3 lead two batters later on a wild pitch. Jacob Zeller led off the bottom of the 10th by beating out an infield grounder and moved around to third on a successful hit and run by Ben Brittain. Brittain would steal second base leading Augustana to intentionally walk Mellinger to load the bases. Wheaton tied the game when Laucella drew a walk and two batters later, Josh Kimmel brought in the game-ending run with a squeeze bunt to give Wheaton the 5-4 victory.

In the night cap, the Vikings scored single runs in the top of the second, third, fifth and sixth innings off Thunder starter Michael Kaufman to take a 4-1 advantage. Nick Mailman cut the lead down to two runs in the bottom of the seventh with a two-out double to plate Kimmel and Metz cut the lead to 4-3 in the bottom of the eighth with a two-out double. Wheaton would go down in order in the bottom of the ninth inning to fall 4-3.

Wheaton will host the Carthage Red Men on Wednesday for a 6 pm contest at Lee Pfund Stadium in the rubber match of their three-game series. The two teams split a doubleheader on Tuesday in Kenosha with Carthage winning game one 5-2 and Wheaton winning game two 10-0 in seven innings.