Naperville, Ill. - The Thunder baseball team had its season brought to a close on Thursday afternoon in a 6-5 loss to North Park in the CCIW Tournament. Leading from the beginning of the game, Wheaton's volume of miscues caught up with the Thunder in the bottom of the ninth inning as the Vikings pushed across two runs to walk off with the come from behind victory and stay alive in the double elimination tournament. Wheaton finishes the season with a record of 16-27.


Wheaton built a methodical lead over the early innings behind an offense that continued its momentum from Wednesday's game. A pair of two-out singles put runners on the corners before a wild pitch brought in Ben Weaver with the game's first run in the top of the first inning. Thunder starter Sam Arnold then found himself in hot water in the home half of the inning after a walk and two hit by pitches loaded the bases, but the senior came up with a strikeout to strand the bases loaded without a run.

Carrying the momentum forward, Matthias Haggerty led off the top of the second inning with a home run to lead 2-0. Joel Pierce followed with an RBI single in the top of the third to make it 3-0. Two innings later, Graham Core singled home Noah Ritchie to post Wheaton to a 4-0 lead.

With the offense rolling, Sam Arnold limited the North Park offense to just three hits on the day but continued to have to work around traffic on the bases due to three walks and four hit batters. Wheaton's miscues finally came with a price in Arnold's last inning of work. After getting two quick outs to start the bottom of the sixth inning, two consecutive errors allowed the Vikings to get on the scoreboard for the first time to make it 4-1.

North Park pushed across another two runs in the bottom of the seventh on the back of more Thunder mistakes. The Vikings managed just one hit in the inning, drawing three walks and capitalizing on another two-out error to pull within a run at 4-3.

Wheaton manufactured an insurance run in the top of the eighth inning when Graham Core led off with a single and came in to score on a Harrison Stanton sacrifice fly. Two walks and a single brought the Vikings back within a run in the bottom of the eighth at 5-4 and set the stage for the fifth-seeded Vikings to complete their comback in the bottom of the ninth.

North Park loaded the bases to start the ninth with a walk, a hit by pitch, and a bunt single. Following a pitching change, another walk brought home the tying run and the Vikings walked off with the win after a subsequent single scored the winning run for the 6-5 win.

Wheaton's five runs came on 15 hits with Noah Ritchie leading the way with three hits along with Graham Core. Harrison Stanton, Ben Weaver, and Joel Pierce each had two hits for the Thunder.

Note Worthy: With three hits in Thursday's game, Noah Ritchie finishes his career with a .353 career batting average, which ranks sixth in program history...Ritchie's .435 career on-base percentage is good for ninth in program history...with two its on Thursday, Ben Weaver moved into a tie for seventh place on Wheaton's single season hit list with 61, tying Ryan Miller (2009) and Danny Pyne (2010)...Matthias Haggerty finished the year with 12 doubles, earning him a spot as part of a nine-way tie for 10th on Wheaton's single season doubles list.