Naperville, Ill. – The Thunder baseball team, the No. 3 seed, opened play in the 2022 CCIW Baseball Championship on Wednesday. The No. 4 seed Augustana Vikings (30-10) rallied to defeat the Thunder 7-6.
Wheaton (18-19) faces No. 6 North Park on Thursday at 3:00 p.m. in the second day of the double elimination tournament. The Vikings upset No. 1 seed North Park 7-1 in Thursday's opening game.
Thunder starting pitcher
Brendan Dyer worked four innings for Wheaton, allowing five runs, with one earned run, on five hits, with three walks and two strikeouts.
Nate Barker relieved Dyer for 2/3 of an inning as he walked two batters.
Bjorn Bostrom tossed 2-1/3 scoreless innings, with two hits, three strikeouts and one walk. Bostrom entered the game in the top of the fifth inning with the bases loaded and two outs, and he struck out the first Viking batter he faced in the game on three pitches to end the Augustana threat.
David Solfelt (0-2) relieved Bostrom for the final two innings of the game. Solfelt allowed two runs, with one earned run, on three hits, with one strikeout.
Senior first baseman
Graham Core was 3-for-5, with two doubles and two runs scored. Freshman designated hitter
Mason Diel (PICTURED LEFT) was 2-for-3, with a double and three RBI.
Matthias Haggerty was 2-for-5, with a double.
Ben Weaver also contributed a double for Wheaton.
Augustana scored a run in the top of the first inning to take an early lead. Wheaton tied the contest up with a run in the bottom of the second.
Joe Klein reached on error to lead off the second inning and he scored two batters later, on a sacrifice fly by Diel.
The Vikings scored four runs in the top of the third inning to gain a 5-1 lead. The Thunder responded with two runs in the bottom of the fourth to cut the Vikings' lead to 5-3.
Harrison Stanton led off the third with a walk and advanced to third on a double by Core in the next at bat. Stanton scored on a sacrifice fly by
Ben Weaver, and Core scored on the next at bat on a sacrifice fly by Klein to trim the Vikings' lead to 5-3.
The Thunder plated three runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to gain their first lead with a 6-5 advantage. Klein hit a one-run single in the fifth, and Diel drove in two runs in the inning with a RBI-single. An Augustana double with two outs in the top of the eighth inning drove in the game-tying run from first base to knot the game at 6-6.
The Vikings took advantage of a Wheaton error in the in the top of the ninth inning to score an unearned run with two outs to take a 7-6 lead. Weaver hit a one-out double down the right field line in the bottom of the ninth inning to put a Thunder runner in scoring position. A pop-up followed in the next at bat for Wheaton's second out of the inning. The game ended on a called third strike on the lower in edge of the plate as Augustana left with the one-run victory.
