Bloomington, Ill. – The Wheaton softball team opened up action in the first day of the 2021 CCIW Softball Tournament on Thursday afternoon. The No. 7 seed Thunder played an opening round game at No. 2 seed Illinois Wesleyan, as the Thunder fell to the Titans 4-1. The Titans scored four runs, on three hits, with one error and Wheaton tallied one run, on five hits, with one error.

Wheaton will play in an elimination game of the double-elimination tournament on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. in Bloomington. The Thunder will face the winner of a previous elimination game on Saturday at 12:00 p.m. between Elmhurst and North Park.

Thunder starting pitcher Emilie Gist (8-14) pitched five innings for the Thunder in today's matchup at Illinois Wesleyan. She allowed two runs, including one earned run, on two hits, with two strikeouts and one walk. Alese Antonello tossed one inning for Wheaton, with two runs allowed, including one earned run. Antonello allowed one hit and one walk. Gist, Melissa Meiners, Paige Andrews, Sarah Major and Elle Lindblad each collected a single for the Thunder offense.

Gist held the Titans' offense hitless through first three innings of today's game. The contest was scoreless until the bottom of the sixth inning when the Titans scored four runs. Two of the Titans' runs in the bottom of the sixth were unearned as a Thunder error in the inning played a key role in the hosts' offensive outburst.

Wheaton tallied a run in the top of the seventh inning and had an opportunity for more until the Titans closed the door for the 4-1 win. Major was hit by a pitch to advance to first base with one out. Lindblad singled to advance Major to second base and then Sydney Heinrich pinch ran for Lindblad at first base. Oh reached first safely on an IWU error that advance Heinrich and Lindblad each one base to load the bases. Ashley Carter's groundout brought Major home to trim the Titans' lead to 4-1. Illinois Wesleyan threw out the batter that followed Carter to end the game at 4-1.