Carol Stream, Ill. - The Wheaton baseball team returned to action for its first game in six days on Tuesday night at Lee Pfund Stadium. The visiting Cougars of Concordia University Chicago held off a Wheaton rally as CUC defeated the Thunder, 7-5.
Concordia scored seven runs, on nine hits, with one error and the Thunder tallied five runs, on nine hits, with one error. Thunder starting pitcher
Caleb Downing (0-2) worked one inning, allowing four runs on four hits, with two walks and a strikeout.
Brendan Dyer worked 4-2/3 innings of relief, allowing three runs, on four hits, with two strikeouts, and one walk.
Bjorn Bostrom tossed 1-1/3 scoress innings of relief, with no hits allowed, one walk and one strikeout.
John McCraith worked a scoreless innings, with no hits allowed.
David Solfelt pitched the ninth inning, allowing no runs, on one hit with one walk and two strikeouts.
Centerfielder
Ben Weaver starred at the plate tonight, with a 3-for-4 effort, drawing a walk, as he scored twice with two RBI. Weaver belted a two-run home run over the left field fence and slammed a triple to the gap in right field. Hitting his fourth triple of the season, Weaver is now in the top-10 in Division III in triples this season. Shortstop
Matthias Haggerty was 3-for-4 tonight, with a walk and two runs scored.
Concordia scored four runs in the top of the second inning to gain an early 4-0 lead. Haggerty reached safely in the bottom of the second inning on a bunt single, and he scored three batters later on a RBI-single by
Kyle Wu. Haggerty's run trimmed the Cougars' lead to 4-1 through two innings.
Concordia increased its lead to 5-1 with a run in the top of the fifth inning on a solo home run. Weaver slammed a one-out triple to the fence in the gap in right centerfield, and scored on a passed ball in the next at bat. Weaver's run cut the guests' lead to 5-2 through five innings.
The Cougars added two runs in the top o the sixth innining to extended the CUC lead to 7-2. Haggerty hit a leadoff single up the middle of the infield in the bottom of the eighth inning. He scored three batters later on a RBI groundout by Wu to cut the Concordia lead to 7-3 through eight innings.
Graham Core led off the bottom of the ninth inning with a single into leftfield. Weaver stepped up in the next at bat and blasted a two-run home run over the fence in leftfield to cut the Cougars' lead to 7-5 with no outs. However, Concordia sidearm pitcher Mike Tobin walked a Thunder batter and struck out three to end the game with a 7-5 win for the guests.
Wheaton is scheduled to return to action tomorrow night with another non-conference contest agaisnt IIT. Tomorrow's game against IIT is slated for a 5:00 p.m. first pitch.
