Elmhurst, Ill. - On the verge of a weekend sweep, the Thunder baseball team settled for a doubleheader split on Saturday afternoon against Elmhurst University. Wheaton took game one in convincing fashion by a score of 12-5 before a late Elmhurst rally earned the Bluejays (17-19, 12-16) a 5-4 victory in the nightcap. Wheaton will head into the final week of the regular season with a record of 13-23 overall and 9-19 in CCIW play. Wheaton will host Augustana on Wednesday night before traveling to Carthage to open up a three-game weekend series on Friday night.

Riding the momentum from Friday' night's extra innings victory, the Thunder offense surged to start the day on Saturday. After stranding a pair of runners in the top of the second and Elmhurst pushed a run across in the bottom of the second, Wheaton loaded the bases on a pair of walks sandwiched around a Jesse Welch single. Noah Ritchie brought tied the game with a subsequent walk and Joel Pierce followed with a grand slam to put Wheaton ahead 5-1 and force an early pitching change.

Pierce came to the plate again with the bases loaded in the top of the fourth inning and ripped a two-run single through the left side. Graham Core followed two batters later with an infield single to score Ritchie to give Wheaton an 8-1 lead.

Wheaton answered an Elmhurst run in the bottom of the fourth with a run in the top of the fifth when Ben Weaver doubled home Welch. With the Thunder offense rolling, Sam Arnold limited the Elmhurst offense to three runs, one earned, in six innings of work, scattering eight hits with one strikeout.

The Bluejays would get two runs off reliever AJ Dhus in the bottom of the eighth inning to pull within 9-5, but Wheaton answered again in the top of the ninth when Ritchie ripped a two-run triple to left center and scored on another Pierce single, bringing his RBI total to seven, capping off the 12-5 victory. Pierce finished the game with four hits to lead a 17-hit barrage by the Thunder offense. Jesse Welch, Noah Ritchie, and Matthias Haggerty each had three-hit games with Welch scoring four runs and Ritchie adding three runs driven in and three runs scored.

Elmhurst jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the nightcap with two runs in the bottom of the second and oen run in the bottom of the fourth off of Thunder starter Jacob Rans. Alex Hanvey came on in relief in the bottom of the fifth inning and stymied the Bluejay offense for three innings giving the Thunder offense a chance to catch up.

As he did in game one, Pierce led the Thunder charge, driving in the first run with a single to score Weaver before Haggerty drove an RBI double to left. Trailing 3-2 in the top of the seventh, Weaver pulled Wheaton even with a double to left center to score Luke Roudabush. The Thunder then pulled ahead in the top of the eighth inning when Mason Packwood singled home Haggerty to make it 4-3.

Wheaton's lead would be short lived as the Bluejays got to Hanvey for a pair of two-out runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to take a 5-4 lead and hold on for the victory.

Weaver tallied three hits to lead the Thunder offense in the nigthcap with Harrison Stanton joining Haggerty and Graham Core with two-hit games with Core also adding two stolen bases.

Note Worthy: With two stolen bases in the nightcap of Saturday's doubleheader, Graham Core is now successful on all 22 stolen base attempts this season. His 22 stolen bases moves him into a tie for sixth on the single season stolen base list with Nick Mailman (22-27, 2017).