PICTURED ABOVE: Clay Morrison drove in four runs in Wheaton's 14-11 victory over Augustana on Friday afternoon.
Moline, Ill. - The Thunder baseball survived a wild second game to earn a doubleheader split at Augustana College on Friday afternoon. Wheaton dropped the opener 8-6, but rallied late to win the nightcap 14-11. The Thunder and Vikings will decide their series on Saturday with a 1 pm first pitch at Lee Pfund Stadium. Wheaton is now 10-9 overall and 1-3 in the CCIW. Augustana is 13-4 and 1-1 in conference play.
Wheaton got off to a fast start in the second game, hanging five runs on Augustana starter Matt Hoban without Hoban recording an out. The Viking offense fought back with three runs in the bottom of the first inning and added four more in the bottom of the second inning to steal back the momentum. Another run in the bottom of the third inning pushed the Vikings to an 8-5 lead. Wheaton fought back with two runs in the top of the sixth inning when
Nick Mailman was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and
Jesse Welch's sacrifice fly drove in
Joel Pierce, cutting the Viking lead to 8-7. The Vikings answered quickly again, striking for three runs in the bottom of the sixth to lead 11-7.
An RBI single by
Seth Meyer and a sacrifice fly by
Jacob Garrity drew Wheaton back to within 11-9 in the top of the seventh and
Jesse Welch stranded a pair or runners in the bottom half of the inning to set up Wheaton's dramatic eighth inning.
One-out singles by Welch and
Ben Brittain were followed by a walk to
Johnny Peltz to load the bases and a Viking pitching change.
Clay Morrison worked the count full and fouled off several pitches before driving a bases clearing double to deep left-center, giving Wheaton a 12-11 lead. Pierce followed by singling through the drawn-in infield to plate Morrison and provide Wheaton with an insurance run. Garrity (PICTURED RIGHT) added to the lead later in the inning with a single down the left field line to plate
Graham Core, putting Wheaton ahead 14-11. When the dust settled for the Thunder eighth inning, Wheaton had scored five runs on five hits against five different Viking pitchers.
Welch followed with a scoreless eighth inning and
Nick Johnson nailed down his fourth save of the year with a scoreless ninth inning.
Wheaton's 14 runs came on 13 hits and overcame five defensive errors. The Vikings scored their 11 runs on 14 hits with one error. Morrison led the Thunder with three hits and four runs driven in. Meyer also had three hits and drove in two runs. Garrity drove in two runs and tallied two hits.
Joel Pierce and
Johnny Peltz scored three runs apiece.
The Thunder broke up a pitcher's duel in the opener of the doubleheader, breaking a scoreless tie with three runs in the top of the fifth inning. Garrity broke the seal with an RBI single to center, plating Pierce. After a sacrifice bunt by Core moved runners to second and third,
Nick Mailman followed with a perfect safety squeeze bunt to score
Clay Morrison. Welch followed with a double to left-center to score Garrity making it 3-0.
Augustana battled back in the home half of the fifth, tying the game with a two-out, three-run home run by Carter Amundsen and taking the lead two batters later on a double by Jake Huber. The Vikings would continue to roll with four more runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to lead 8-3. Wheaton would cut the lead down to 8-6 in the top of the eighth starting with an RBI single by
Evan Ogden scoring Brittain. Morrison and Garrity followed with RBI groundouts. Wheaton would get the tying run to the plate in both the eighth and ninth innings but could not complete the comeback.
