Carol Stream, Ill. - The Thunder baseball team wrapped up the regular season portion of its schedule on Saturday afternoon by splitting a doubleheader against Carthage College. By winning the first game of the doubleheader, the Thunder secured their spot in the CCIW standings and will host Carthage again on Monday afternoon at 3 pm in the CCIW Tournament play-in game. Both teams finished the season with a record of 11-21 in conference play with Carthage holding a 16-24 overall record and Wheaton finishing at 15-25.

Strong starting pitching was the storyline with Saturday's opener with Sam Arnold matching Carthage starter Troy Siranovic blow for blow deep into the game. Noah Ritchie's RBI single in the bottom of the first inning gave Wheaton the first lead of the game, but a leadoff double in the top of the second inning led to a quick answer by the Firebirds.

Ritchie started a two-out Thunder rally in the top of the third with a single and came around to score later in the inning on a single by Joel Pierce. Carthage leveled quickly again with a solo home run in the top of fourth inning to make it 2-2.

Another two-out rally proved to be the difference in the game in the bottom of the fourth when Jesse Welch singled in Graham Core and Harrison Stanton after each had stolen a base in the inning. Leading 4-2, Sam Arnold shut down the Carthage offense, allowing just three hits over the final five innings. The senior pitcher finished the game allowing only five hits with five strikeouts in a complete game effort to earn his third win of the season.

Wheaton jumped ahead early again in game two, immediately loading the bases and posting four runs on five hits in the inning. Noah Ritchie drove in two runs in the inning with a single. Joel Pierce and Graham Core also drove in runs with RBI singles in the innning.

After Carthage scored twice in the top of the inning, Ritchie drove in another run in the bottom of the second inning with a groundout that plated Jesse Welch. With a 5-2 load in tow after two innings, the Thunder offense went dormant while Carthage ramped up their offense in the middle innings with a run in the top of the third before plating three in the fifth and fou rin the sixth inning. The Firebirds added their final run in the top of the seventh to account for the 11-5 final score.

After reaching on a fielder's choice in the bottom of the fifth inning, Graham Core quickly stole second base and immediately followed with a steal of third base for his 26th stolen base of the season. With the steal of third base, Core established a program record for steals in a single season, breaking a record previously shared by Kevin Jacobson (1987), Steve Townsend (1988, 1989), and Brian Kolb (2008).

Ben Weaver led the Thunder offense in the nightcap with three hits. Ritchie drove in three runs to bring his team-high total to 32 runs driven in on the season. Jesse Welch also had two hits with two runs scored.