Carol Stream, Ill. -- In a conference game that was rescheduled due to weather, the Wheaton and North Park baseball teams finally met at Lee Pfund Stadium on Monday to close out the 2022 regular season. The Thunder handled the Vikings, 12-2, in seven innings to earn an impressive win heading into postseason play. Wheaton's record now sits at .500 for the year and 11-7 in CCIW action. This afternoon's victory allowed the Thunder to clinch the third seed in this week's conference tournament, their highest seeding in the competition since 2017.
Jared Kloth started the game on the mound for Wheaton and picked up his third win of the season. The freshman from Cincinnati allowed just three hits and zero runs in four innings, while also tallying a team-leading three strikeouts. Four other Wheaton pitchers saw playing time this afternoon, and
Caleb Downing,
Josiah Livingston, and
John McCraith each earned one strikeout and blanked the North Park batters during their appearances.
The box score lines tell the story, as Wheaton out-hit North Park by a significant 13-4 margin, and the Vikings committed three errors to Wheaton's zero.
Harrison Stanton led the way for Wheaton offensively on Monday with three hits and three RBIs while also scoring two runs.
Mason Diel went three-for-four at the plate, joining Stanton on three RBIs and adding one run for good measure.
Zach Ledbetter registered two hits and runs apiece, while
Ben Weaver scored twice, hit once, and drove in an RBI.
Matthias Haggerty generated a pair of hits, one RBI, and a run.
Tyler Weiner earned one of each in today's win.
Kyle Wu picked up an RBI and one run, and
Graham Core earned two RBIs.
The Thunder enjoyed an important early cushion in today's contest, scoring four runs in the first two innings to create some separation from their city visitors.
Mason Diel started it off in the bottom of the first with a two-RBI single, bringing
Ben Weaver and
Harrison Stanton in to score. The former then registered an RBI single of his own to bring
Zach Ledbetter home, and the lead quickly grew to four runs when
Matthias Haggerty tacked on a third RBI single to help Weaver round the bases. Despite trailing 4-0, however, North Park stranded six Wheaton base runners in the first two frames, leaving the door open for a potential comeback. But error-free fielding from the home side, including a smooth double play in the second inning, meant that the Vikings only posted three hits through the first four frames and had no clear path back into the game.
The visitors' best chance to make things interesting came in the top of the fifth inning, but a ground out to second base meant that the three Vikings runners on the bags had to return to the dug out prematurely. Wheaton then put the contest out of reach in the bottom half, as the Thunder piled on four more runs from an RBI single, a two-run ground rule double, and a sacrifice fly. After forcing another three-up, three-down sequence in the following exchange, Wheaton hit double digits on the scoreboard for the 12th time this season. An RBI double down the left field line from Diel allowed
Matt Nelson to go home, and
Jacob Snyder added the tenth run from a fielder's choice situation. An RBI double and a sacrifice fly from the Vikings in the top of the seventh inning raised the possibility of the game going the distance, but Wheaton limited their opponents to only two runs before tacking on an additional pair of their own in the bottom to wrap up proceedings. An RBI triple from Stanton was followed by another sacrifice fly to push Wheaton up to 12 runs and complete the regular season sweep over North Park.
As regular season champions, the North Central Cardinals earned hosting rights for the 2022 conference tournament, so each game of this week's event will be played in Naperville. Wheaton is set to take on fourth-seeded Augustana at 6:00 PM on Wednesday in their first round game, just four days after the two teams met in Carol Stream. The Thunder and the Vikings split their two regular season contests in last weekend's doubleheader.
