Decatur, Ill. - The Thunder baseball team battled neck and neck with Millikin on Friday afternoon but ultimately dropped both games of a doubleheader against the Big Blue. The Big Blue broke late ties in both games, winning game one by a score of 7-4 before taking the nightcap 4-2. Wheaton has not dropped five-straight in conference action and falls to 5-9 overall and 3-5 in the CCIW. Millikin improves to 14-3 overall and 7-2 in the CCIW. The two teams will wrap up their season series on Saturday with a 1 pm doubleheader at Lee Pfund Stadium.

Game one opened with Millikin scoring first in the bottom of the first inning before Wheaton tried to rally in the top of the third inning. After loading the bases with no outs, a pair of fielder's choice ground balls cut down the potential tying run at the plate and allowed the Big Blue to sidestep the big inning and escape with the lead. The hosts used the momentum to add to their lead in the bottom of the fourth inning with a solo home run to lead 2-0.

Wheaton answered in the top of the fifth inning, using four walks and a single to score two runs, but the Thunder again missed an opportunity for further damage by leaving the bases loaded. Millikin retook the lead with two more runs in the bottom of the fifth but Wheaton responded again, pulling even at 4-4 using an RBI groundout by Harrison Stanton and an RBI single by Matthias Haggerty.

A pair of two-out singles in the bottom of the sixth re-established the Millikin two-run lead and the Big Blue tacked on an unearned run with another two-out single in the bottom of the seventh inning to pull out the 7-4 victory. Ben Weaver and Joel Pierce each tallied two hits with Pierce connecting on a double for Wheaton's only extra base hit of the game. Noah Yi drew three walks and scored a run.

Brent Beals staked Millikin to an early lead again in game two of the doubleheader, connecting on an RBI single in the bottom of the first and adding another RBI single in the bottom of the fifth inning. With the Wheaton offense quiet through the opening six innings, Sam Arnold gave Wheaton a chance but limiting the Big Blue to just two runs in seven innings of work. Trailing 2-0 entering the seventh inning, the Thunder offense got Arnold off the hook for the loss when Harrison Stanton tripled home Mason Packwood and came in to score on a single by Noah Yi.

Millikin would break the 2-2 tie with two runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to pull ahead 4-2 while Beals closed the game down in the ninth inning to preserve the 4-2 Millikin win.

Stanton added a double to his seventh innings triple for a two-hit game. Noah Yi and Graham Core also had two hits in the nightcap.