Carol Stream, Ill. - A windy day made for a wild back and forth doubleheader on Tuesday afternoon between the Thunder and Carthage College. After seeing its lead evaporate late in game one, the Thunder walked off with a 9-8 victory in 10 innings in game of the twinbill before dropping game two 10-7. Wheaton is now 13-6 on the season and 3-3 in the CCIW. Carthage moves to 10-9 overall and 2-4 in conference play. Wheaton will kick off a three-game set with the Elmhurst Bluejays on Friday night with a 6 pm first pitch at Butterfield Park in Elmhurst.

Wheaton struck quickly in the bottom of the first inning game one when Jesse Welch led off with a single, stole second, and scored two batters later when Joel Pierce tripled off the top of the left field fence. Pierce then scored on Evan Ogden's groundout.

With the wind blowing out, Carthage used the long ball to overcome the early deficit using solo home runs in the second and fifth innings and two-run shot in the third to take a 4-2 lead. Wheaton cut the lead in half on Pierce's sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fifth inning and retook the lead in the bottom of the sixth when Ben Brittain led off with a double to left that was followed by a towering two-run home run to left-center by Connor Hartman, putting Wheaton back up 5-4.

The Thunder added three runs in the seventh to take an 8-4 lead while Thunder starter Kevin Champlin kept the ball in the yard and held the Red Men in check. The freshman exited after eight innings of work, surrendering four runs and striking out eight hitters. Carthage struck against the Wheaton bullpen in the top of the ninth, scoring four runs on six hits to tie the game at 8-8.

Caleb Selk made short work of the Red Men in the top of the 10th inning, setting up Wheaton's walk-off rally. Sam Reichert led off the inning with a ground rule double to center field and was replaced by pinch runner James Ocenasek. Ocenasek would be driven home on the ensuing batter when Matthias Haggerty drove a deep double to right field to end the game. Selk earned the win on the mound with 1.2 innings of scoreless relief.

Pitching dominated the early innings of game two with Dante Guarascio and Luke Kram trading scoreless innings until Wheaton finally broke through in the home half of the fourth inning. Brittain drove home Wheaton's first run on an RBI single scoring Ogden after he singled and stole a base. Brittain would score later in the inning on a sacrifice fly by Jacob Garrity followed by an RBI single by Haggerty to put Wheaton up 3-0.

Kram continued rolling through the Red Men, finishing his night with five scoreless innings of work, capped by this third double play ball of the night. Kram allowed just three hits and struck out two in the outing.

Once again, Carthage jumped on the Thunder bullpen, pushing across two runs in the top of the sixth inning before exploding for six runs in the top of the seventh to take an 8-3 lead. Wheaton closed to within 8-6 using an RBI double by Brett Albaugh in the seventh and RBIs by Garrity and Haggerty in the eight. The Red Men responded with two runs in the top of the ninth to pull ahead to a 10-6 lead for some extra cushion when Ogden doubled and came around to score in the ninth inning.