PICTURED ABOVE: John Schmitz pitched two innings of scoreless relief against North Park.
Carol Stream, Ill. – The Thunder baseball team opened conference play against North Park University on Tuesday night at Lee Pfund Stadium. Wheaton topped the Vikings 6-3. The Thunder scored six runs, on nine hits with no errors and North Park tallied three runs, on seven hits with two errors.
Thunder starting pitcher
Kyle Ferraro worked four innings as he allowed one run, scattering three hits. Ferraro struck out five batters and walked five.
Josiah Longenecker (1-0) pitched two innings of scoreless relief. He struck out one batter and allowed two hits.
John Schmitz tallied two innings of scoreless relief, striking out one batter with no hits allowed.
Nick Johnson worked one inning of relief. He allowed two earned runs, on two hits, with two walks.
Thunder centerfielder
Nick Mailman (PICTURED LEFT) was 2-4 at the plate. Mailman scored twice and drove in two runs.
Brett Albaugh drove in two runs for the Thunder.
Wheaton gained an early 1-0 lead with one run in the bottom of the first inning. Mailman, the Thunder leadoff hitter in the bottom of the first, was hit by a pitch and he scored two batters later on a RBI-double down the rightfield line by senior
Peter Newman.
The Thunder increased the lead to 4-0 with three runs in the bottom of the second inning. Mailman drove in a pair of runs in the second with a two-run single to rightfield. Mailman scored in the next at bat when
Ben Brittain doubled to left centerfield. North Park cut the Thunder lead to 4-1 with a run in the top of the fourth inning.
Wheaton added a pair of insurance runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to extend the Thunder lead to 6-1.
Kyle Trivits and Mailman opened the inning with singles and the each scored on a two-run double down the leftfield line that went off the NPU third baseman's glove. The Vikings added two runs in the top of the ninth inning to account for the 6-3 final score.
Wheaton will entertain Edgewood College on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. in a makeup game of a contest that was rained out last Saturday.
