Carol Stream, Ill. - A back and forth game came unraveled in the eighth inning for the Thunder baseball team in a 20-8 run-rule loss to #11-ranked North Central. The visiting Cardinals struck for 11 runs, four unearned, in the decisive eighth inning, leading to their ninth-consecutive victory and pushing their record to 20-5 overall and 14-3 in the CCIW. Wheaton falls to 8-17 overall and 4-13 in the CCIW. The Thunder will travel to Chicago on Friday for the opener of a three-game weekend set with North Park.

North Central played from ahead for most of Wednesday night's game after the Thunder took the initial lead in the bottom of the first inning when Graham Core led off with a double and scored on Noah Ritchie's two-out single. The Cardinals responded with a run in the top of the second inning and two each in the third and fourth innings.

Joel Pierce led off the Thunder fourth with a double followed by a single by Mason Packwood. Pierce would score on an RBI single by Matthias Haggerty and Packwood would later come in to score on Clayton Moore's single up the middle. North Central's offense kept humming along with a run in the top the fifth and two more in the top of the sixth to re-establish the lead at 8-3 heading to the bottom of the sixth inning.

Wheaton's half of the sixth looked like it would go quietly until Jesse Welch woke the Thunder bats with a two-out, two-run home run to left field. Ben Weaver and Ritchie followed with walks and Pierce brought Wheaton within 8-6 with a single up the middle. Packwood's hit by pitch loaded the bases for Haggerty, who came through again, driving a two-run single to center to tie the score 8-8.

The Cardinals took advantage of two walks to push across a run in the top of the seventh inning before the explosive eighth inning put the game away as the visitors scored 11 times on 10 hits with the help of two Thunder errors to take a 20-8 lead that would prove to be the final tally.

Wheaton scored its eight runs on 16 hits with the bottom half of the order doing most of the damage. The five through eight spots of the batting order combined to contribute 11 of Wheaton's 16 hits with Joel Pierce, Matthias Haggerty, and Clayton Moore each finishing with three hits. Haggerty drove home a team-best three runs and Pierce crossed the plate twice. Jesse Welch also had three hits with two runs driven in.