Carol Stream, Ill. - After meeting for three games over the weekend, Wheaton and Carthage met again on Monday afternoon in the CCIW Tournament Play-in game. After taking two of three over the weekend from the Firebirds (16-25), the Thunder left no doubt in Monday's outcoming, erupting for eight runs in the opening two innings before cruising to a 12-4 victory. With the victory, Wheaton (16-25) advances to the double elimination CCIW Tournament, beginning on Wednesday with an 11 am matchup against top-seeded North Central. Wheaton and North Central will serve as co-hosts for this year's CCIW Tournament.

Wheaton scored 12 runs on 15 hits while not committing an error for just the fourth time this season. Carthage scored its four runs on five hits with two errors. Making just his second start of the season, Joe Klein took the win for the Thunder, allowing only one run on four hits in five innings of work while striking out six.

After Klein struck out the side in the top of the first, the Thunder offense went quickly to work in the bottom of the first against Carthage ace Dante Guarascio scoring two runs on three hits starting with a Joel Pierce single to left that scored Jesse Welch and also brought in Ben Weaver on a subsequent fielding error.

Despite not giving up more than two earned runs in a start all season entering play on Monday, the Thunder offense landed the knockout blow in the bottom of the second inning, scoring six runs on six hits and chasing Guarascio from the game after only recording four outs. Wheaton loaded the bases early in the inning before an RBI single by Welch. Two batters later, Noah Ritchie drove in two runs with a single. Matthias Haggerty followed later in the inning with a two-run single to left center and after leading off the inning with a single, Mason Packwood drove in the final run of the inning with a groundout to second base.

Carthage cut into the Thunder lead with a run in the top of the fifth inning and added three more in the top of the sixth inning to pull within 8-4. From there, the Thunder bullpen held the Firebirds hitless over the final four innings of the game with John McCraith firing two scoreless innings before Alex Hanvey struck out two in a perfect eighth inning and Matt Abruzzo struck out the side to close the game in the top of the ninth inning.

Wheaton answered Carthage's run in the bottom of the sixth inning with a two-run home run by Matthias Haggerty. Ben Weaver's RBI triple in the seventh inning made it 11-4, and an RBI double by Haggerty in the eighth accounted for Wheaton's 12-4 final spread.

With Weaver's seventh inning triple, the sophomore outfielder recorded his sixth triple of the season to establish a new program single-season record, breaking a six-way tie with Brian Kolb (2009), Drew Golz (2011), Ryan Miller (2011), Nick Mailman (2019), and Harrison Stanton (2021).

Weaver was one of five Thunder players with multi-hit games led by Ritchie and Haggerty with three-hit games. Haggerty drove in a game-high five runs. Weaver, Welch, and Joel Pierce also finished with two hits.