GAME STATS 1 | GAME STATS 2 Tucson, AZ -- The Wheaton baseball team began their week-long residency in Arizona on Saturday, as the Thunder opened the 2022 Tucson Invitational with a contest against #10 Aurora University in the morning and an afternoon matchup against Emerson College. Wheaton suffered run-rule defeats in both games, as the Spartans topped the Thunder 10-0 in seven innings and the Lions overpowered Wheaton 13-3 after eight.

The team could not have faced a much stronger opponent to begin their spring break series. Saturday was Aurora's first game of the campaign, but the Spartans looked as though they were in mid-season form, especially on the defensive side of the contest. Allowing just five hits off of 23 at-bats, the top ten side had no intention of letting Wheaton create a foothold in the game. Aurora pitcher Josh Reinhardt earned the win and added a two-RBI double in the top of the seventh inning to help the Spartans pull away and secure the comfortable victory. The game appeared to be heading the distance before a seven-run explosion in the final frame allowed Aurora to claim an abbreviated win. Alex Vlaisavich was assigned the loss in his first start on the mound, but the senior only allowed two of Aurora's runs. Brendan Dyer registered five strikeouts from 13 batters faced in his backup role.

Offensively, Joe Klein was the only Thunder player to post multiple hits against the Spartans. The junior went close to clearing the fence with a fifth inning triple before firing off a double in the last frame. Graham Core, Kyle Wu, and Tyler Weiner each picked up singles in trips to the plate. Aurora's Corey Vondra was the offensive MVP of Saturday's first game, posting two runs and three RBIs off of a pair of connections.

The Thunder will get another crack at their highly-ranked opponents in two weeks' time when they host Aurora as part of the first Wheaton Invitational.
 

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The second of the day's two contests followed a similar trajectory, with Wheaton proving a competitive challenger to their opponents early on, before their counterparts pulled away down the stretch to earn a shortened triumph. The game was tied 2-2 after the second inning, but the Emerson Lions outscored the Thunder, 11-1, after this point to wrap it up in eight innings.

Graham Core tallied the first run of the game when the senior scored on a fielder's choice RBI hit from Matthias Haggerty after singling himself and stealing both second and third base. Emerson responded immediately with a triple that led to a single-base RBI to tie the game at one apiece. A few minutes later with a man on third, a Wheaton balk then handed Emerson the lead. Matt Nelson began the second frame by taking a shot from the Lions' pitcher before stealing second base. After a fly out allowed him to advance to third base, Jacob Snyder brought Nelson home via a single. Despite not being able to reclaim the lead in the second inning, The Thunder were holding steady on the scoreboard. But the bats quickly cooled off and Emerson found their offensive groove to put the game out of reach by the time the sixth inning arrived. A six-run showing in the fifth saw Emerson create permanent separation and condemn Wheaton to a second defeat of the day. Jacob Snyder nabbed a consolation run in the penultimate frame after an initial double set him up to cross home plate when Mason Diel earned an RBI off of his ground out to second base.

Snyder and Core each registered a pair of hits for Wheaton on Saturday afternoon. They were joined by Haggerty and Mason Diel in the stat column, as the Thunder put up six hits and three runs off of 27 at-bats. Emerson managed 33 trips to the batter's box. and went a perfect 13-for-13 on runs off of hits. JD Van Hook continued the early season rotation of starting pitchers for Wheaton, and while the freshman picked up the loss in his first collegiate start, he did earn a pair of strikeouts. David Solfelt and Nate Barker also tallied a pair of strikeouts each.

With today's results, Wheaton falls to 1-4 on the season. The team will be back in action on Monday morning, when the Thunder take on Wabash.