Carol Stream, Ill. - The Thunder baseball team came up just short in a thrilling opener to the double elimination portion of the CCIW Tournament on Wednesday. Wheaton pushed top-seeded and ninth-ranked North Central to the limit but came up just short in an 8-7 loss to the Cardinals in a game played at Lee Pfund Stadium. Wheaton will face North Park University in an elimination game on Thursday morning at North Central College with first pitch scheduled for 11 am.

Wheaton tallied its seven runs on 13 hits, leaving six runners on base in the game. North Central used 11 hits to score its eight runs with 10 runners left on base. Neither team committed an error in the game.

Playing as the home team, North Central took the early lead, striking for three runs on three hits in the bottom of the first inning. Wheaton answered in the top of the third inning when Graham Core and Mason Packwood opened with singles and Tyler Weiner followed with a bunt single to load the bases. Harrison Stanton came through with a two-run double to right center and Noah Ritchie's two-out single scored Weiner to tie the game at 3-3.

The Cardinals came back in the bottom of the third inning with a two-out rally to score another three runs to retake a 6-3 lead. From there, Thunder starter Jacob Garrity was able to calm the Cardinal bats, retiring ten-straight hitters until a leadoff triple in the bottom of the seventh inning. Inheriting runners on the corners with just one out in the bottom of the seventh, Alex Hanvey came on in relief of Garrity to struck out the next to hitters to strand a pair of Cardinals and keep the deficit at 6-3.

Wheaton got into the North Central bullpen in the top of the eighth inning, putting the first two batters of the inning on base, but could not come through with a hit to shrink the gap and stranded both runners. North Central took advantage and added two more runs in the bottom of the eighth inning, but consecutive strikeouts by Matt Abruzzo avoided further damage and kept the Cardinal lead at 8-3 entering the ninth inning.

Graham Core led off the ninth with a walk and came around to score when Mason Packwood followed with a double to left center field. Singles by Weiner and Stanton then brought home Packwood to cut the lead to 8-5. After a Cardinal pitching change, Jesse Welch continued the rally with an RBI single to put the tying run on base. Ben Weaver's sacrifice fly to left brought home Stanton and cut the lead to 8-7 with just one out, but Wheaton's rally came to an abrupt end with a strike out-pickoff double play to end the game.

Harrison Stanton drove in three runs to lead the Thunder attack and was one of six players to record a multi-hit game. Graham Core, Mason Packwood, and Tyler Weiner each tallied two hits with two runs scored.