Naperville, Ill. - A thrilling back-and-forth effort in game one came up short as the Thunder dropped both games of a doubleheader at ninth-ranked North Central (26-6, 20-4) on Saturday afternoon. Wheaton rallied from a five-run deficit but surrendered a late run that proved to be the difference in an 11-10 loss in game one and then couldnt recover from an early hole in an 8-4 loss in game two. Wheaton (11-22, 7-18 CCIW') will have the week off before the Thunder open a three-game weekend series with Elmhurst on Friday night at Lee Pfund Stadium for Senior Night.

Wheaton struck first in the opener when Harriston Stanton led off the game with a double as the Thunder loaded the bases with the first three batters before Noah Ritchie drew a walk to bring in the first run of the inning. Two batters later Matthias Haggerty brought in another run with a walk before Graham Core plated two runs with a single to give Wheaton a quick 4-0 lead. North Central also batted around in their half of the first inning, answering with six runs to finish the first inning with the lead.

The Cardinals would add another run in the bottom of the second and tacked on two more in the bottom of the fourth to lead 9-4 after the fourth inning. Both teams scored in the fifth inning with Haggerty ripping a two-out triple to score Joel Pierce in the half of the inning.

Trailing 10-5 entering the sixth inning, Wheaton batted around in the top of the sixth inning scoring five runs on six hits to tie the game. Jesse Welch brought home the first two runs of the inning on a single following Stanton's second double of the game. Pierce and Mason Packwood later added RBI singles with another run coming in to score on an error athat allowed Haggerty to reach.

On in relief of starter Sam Arnold, AJ Dhus slowed the Cardinal offense over four innings of relief work and shut the hosts out for two innings after the Thunder pulled even. Wheaton had chances to pull ahead, stranding a runner on second in each of the seventh and eighth innings before the Cardinals manufactured the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth to lead. Wheaton again got a runner to second in the top of the ninth but could not pull even as the Cardinals escaped with the 11-10 win.

Harrison Stanton doubled and scored twice as part of a Thunder trio with two-hit games. Jesse Welch and Graham Core each drove in two runs on two hits with Haggerty also driving in two. Joel Pierce scored three of Wheaton's 10 runs with Ben Weaver adding two more runs scored.

North Central got off to the quick start in game two, taking a 7-0 lead after two innings. As he did in game one, Stanton started a Thunder rally in the top of the third inning with a leadoff double and came in to score on Noah Ritchie's RBI single. Ritchie would score later in the inning on a Cardinal throwing error and Matthias Haggerty added an RBI single to cut the Cardinal lead to 7-3.

Alex Hanvey stabilized the game for the Thunder, pitching a scoreless two innings befure surrendering a run in the bottom of the fifth inning. Tyler Weiner answered that run in the next half inning with a triple before scoring on a Larken Lancaster groundout to make it 8-4 in favor of the Cardinals.

Joe Klein followed with two innings of shutout relief and Matt Abruzzo added a scoreless ninth inning to keep the Cardinal lead at four, but Patrick Schaefer shutdown the Thunder offense for the final three innings to preserve the 8-4 Cardinal win.

Note Worthy: Graham Core secured his 20th stolen base of the season in game two of today's doubleheader, moving him into seventh place on Wheaton's single season stolen base list with Josh Morey (2004).