Carol Stream, Ill. - Missed opportunities again cost the Thunder baseball team on Saturday afternoon. Wheaton dropped a tightly contested opener 3-2 before falling via the mercy rule 11-1 in the nightcap of a doubleheader against North Park. The series sweep drops Wheaton's record to 13-17 overall as Wheaton has now dropped eight straight games to sit at 4-11 in the CCIW. North Park improved to 13-15 overall and 8-5 in conference play.

A failed double play turn cost the Thunder a chance to end the inning in the top of the second of game one, allowing North Park to push three runs across an take an early 3-0 lead on Saturday. Pitching dominated the middle innings with Ty Hoeksema and Josh Ward matching zeros. Hoeksema would surrender three runs, two earned, while scattering nine hits over seven innings of work. Ward matched him with six innings of work, allowing two runs on seven hits.

Wheaton cut into the lead in the bottom of the sixth inning when Joel Pierce singled and scored on a Johnny Peltz single. The Thunder threatened to further dent the lead but stranded runners on second and third to end the inning. A leadoff walk by Graham Core in the bottom of the seventh inning led to Core coming in to score on a wild pitch to cut the lead to 3-2. However, the Thunder stranded two more runners including the tying run at third with an inning-ending groundout.

Down to their last chance, Wheaton opened the ninth inning with runners on first and second but a failed sacrifice bunt prevented Wheaton from advancing the runners and the Thunder could not plate the tying run in a 3-2 loss.

Pierce, Ben Brttain and Peltz led the Thunder offense in the opener with each recording a two-hit game.

Four unearned runs in the top of the first inning of game two put the Thunder behind early as the Viking offense tallied an additional run in the fifth and then broke the game open with three runs in each of the sixth and seventh innings. Wheaton's lone run in the nightcap came in the bottom of the fifth inning when Connor Hartman reached on an error, stole second, and came in to score on an RBI single by Pierce.

Wheaton will next be in action on Wednesday night, when the Thunder host Millikin University for a doubleheader beginning at 3 pm at Lee Pfund Stadium.