Naperville, Ill. - The Wheaton baseball team (24-15) lost a tough contest on Thursday in a loss to Illinois Wesleyan (22-17) in the opening session of the 2019 CCIW Baseball Tournament. The Titans defeated Wheaton 4-3 in 10 innings. Wheaton will play North Park in an elimination game of the tournament on Friday morning at 10 a.m. at North Central's Zimmerman Stadium.

Illinois Wesleyan scored four runs, on 12 hits, with no errors and Wheaton tallied three runs on eight hits, with no errors. Thunder starting pitcher Michael McCraith pitched nine innings, allowing three runs. The senior allowed 10 hits, with one walk and eight strikeouts. Caleb Selk pitched 1/3 of an inning of relief, scattering two hits, with one run, one hit and one strikeout. Jacob Garrity faced one batter.

Evan Ogden was 2-for-3 at the plate for the Thunder, with a run scored and a RBI. Jesse Welch was 2-for-4 on the day.

Wheaton broke a scoreless tie in the top of the fifth inning with one run to take a 1-0 lead. Ogden scored the go-ahead run on a wid pitch. The Titans scored three runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to give IWU a 3-1 lead.

Ogden's sacrifice fly in the top of the sixth inning drove in Matthias Haggerty to cut the Illinois Wesleyan lead to 3-2. Nick Mailman tied the game at 3-3 in the top of the eighth inning with a towering home run off the top of the Zimmerman Stadium scoreboard in right field.

The Titans loaded the bases in the top of the 10th inning and scored the game-winning run on a hit batter.