Wheaton, Ill. - The Thunder baseball team wrapped up a three-game sweep of Elmhurst College on Saturday with victories of 9-3 and 2-1 over the Bluejays at Lee Pfund Stadium. The victories moves Wheaton's record to 16-6 overall and 6-3 in the CCIW while dropping Elmhurst to 8-13 overall and 2-6 in conference play. The sweep is Wheaton's first three-game sweep of the Bluejays since the 2009 season. The Thunder will next be in action on Wednesday when the Thunder travel north for a 6 pm game at Carroll University.

Michael McCraith moved to 4-1 on the season by earning the victory in game one of the doubleheader. The Thunder senior struck out ten batters over 6.2 innings while allowing three runs, two earned, on seven hits. Christian Bolhuis struck out two batters in 1.1 innings of relief and Jacob Garrity closed the game with a scoreless inning of work.

Wheaton struck early in the first game when Ben Brittain singled in the bottom of the first inning, stole second, and later scored on Brett Albaugh's single to right field. Wheaton's 1-0 lead held until the bottom of the fifth inning when Matthias Haggerty led off with a walk and stole second and third base. Haggerty and Brittain scored two batters later on Joel Pierce's double to left-center center field. Pierce then moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on a single by Jesse Welch to put Wheaton ahead 4-0.

After Elmhurst struck for two runs in the top of the sixth inning, Wheaton answered with another three runs in the bottom of the inning, scoring runs on an RBI single by Connor Hartman, a throwing error, and an RBI sacrifice fly by Pierce to lead 7-2. The Bluejays pushed across another run in the top of the seventh inning, but Bolhuis stranded the bases loaded with a strikeout in relief of McCraith to preserve Wheaton's 6-3 lead. Wheaton added to its lead with an RBI single by Sam Reichert and an RBI groundout by Brittain.

Welch and Ritchie led the Thunder offense with three hits apiece. Brittain tallied two hits with two walks and two runs scored. Pierce drove in a team-high three runs and Haggerty tied for the team-lead with two runs scored.

Game two of the doubleheader quickly evolved into a pitcher's duel but not before the Thunder could push a run across in the bottom of the first inning on a two-out single by Welch to score Brittain. Following the first inning, Caleb Selk and Elmhurst's Jordan Scrimpsher traded scoreless innings with neither pitcher allowing a runner to reach second base until a one-out double by Tyler Kledzik in the top of the sixth inning. Scrimpsher helped his own cause later in the inning with a two-out single to score Kledzik and tie the game at 1-1. Selk ended the day with six innings of work and one run allowed while scattering three hits and striking out two batters.

After Luke Kram tossed a scoreless seventh inning in relief of Selk, Caleb Grotelueschen started a Thunder rally with a one-out single to left field and quickly stole second base. Two batters later, Brittain pushed Wheaton ahead 2-1 with a triple to right-center field to plate Grotelueschen.

Kram continued Wheaton's strong pitching performance, shutting the Bluejays down in order in the eighth and ninth innings, earning his first victory of the season with three innings of one-hit work while striking out two batters. Scrimpsher took the tough-luck loss for Elmhurst, falling to 3-1 on the season after allowing two earned runs on eight hits in eight innings of work while striking out 13 batters.

Welch turned in another three-hit game in the nightcap and Brittain also had two hits with a run scored and run driven .