Decatur, Ill. -- Fresh off of its shutout home win over North Park on Friday, the Thunder baseball team traveled south to face joint conference-leaders Millikin in a doubleheader this afternoon. The hosting Big Blue stymied Wheaton in game one to claim a 4-1 result, but the visitors used a fifth-inning flurry to earn a road win in the second contest of the day. With Saturday's results now accounted for, Wheaton sits at 14-13 on the season and 6-5 in CCIW action.
The first matchup of the day got off to a slow start, with the scoring not being opened until the bottom of the third inning. Millikin managed to load the bases in the previous frame, but the Thunder earned the third out before their hosts could capitalize. An RBI single up the middle gave Millikin its first run on Saturday, and the same sequence following a triple in the bottom of the fourth doubled the home side's advantage.
Tyler Weiner's deep single in the top of the fifth inning brought
Jacob Snyder across home plate to put Wheaton on the board, and the Thunder managed to stay within one run until the seventh frame. But a sacrifice fly by the Big Blue and another RBI single one inning later pushed the lead up to three runs, and the Wheaton batters had no answer. The guests only posted one hit after their fifth-inning score, as Millikin put on a defensive clinic on their home field.
The Big Blue limited Wheaton to three hits in game one while registering nine of their own, and the Thunder committed the only error of the contest. Millikin left ten runners on base, and Wheaton did well to stay within striking distance. The Big Blue also stole seven bases in the game and prevented Wheaton from capturing any of their own.
Brendan Dyer and
John McCraith shared pitching duties in the first matchup on Saturday, and the senior combo totaled three strikeouts on the mound.
Tyler Weiner generated Wheaton's only score of the game by batting
Jacob Snyder in.
Harrison Stanton led off with a single, and
Ben Weaver accounted for the Thunder's last hit of the contest.
The second half of Saturday's doubleheader seemed to be following the same script, as Millikin scored four runs in the first four innings and held Wheaton to only three hits to begin the game. The Thunder loaded the bases in the top of the fourth frame, but the Big Blue escaped without conceding and added three scores in the bottom half to take a big step towards a home sweep. It was the fifth inning that proved pivotal to the game's outcome, however, as the visitors came up with four scores to tie the contest.
Wheaton began the inning back at the top of the order, and the first four batters to step up to the plate all registered hits. A double by
Ben Weaver allowed
Harrison Stanton to kick off the scoring run, before
Matthias Haggerty singled to bring
Noah Yi into home plate. A ground-out RBI from
Larken Lancaster was enough to help Weaver cross the pentagon, and a poorly-timed throwing error from Millikin enabled the tying run to score. Both teams' offenses cooled off in the subsequent pair of innings, and extra frames began to look like a real possibility.
But the Thunder were determined to settle the contest before it reached a tenth inning.
Luke Hamm fired off a key double to put
Jacob Snyder at third base, and a sac fly from Yi brought Snyder in to break the deadlock.
Ben Weaver then came up with a trademark RBI single to score Hamm and double Wheaton's advantage. Millikin had two batting series to find a solution to the 6-4 deficit and managed to get two runners into scoring position in the bottom of the ninth, but a swinging strikeout and a ground out ensured that the Thunder left town with a share of the spoils.
Wheaton shook off the disappointing offensive performance in game one to tally 11 hits in the second contest, while holding their hosts to seven through nine frames. It was Millikin's turn to commit the lone error of the matchup, and the Thunder stamped out the Big Blue's base-stealing game plan by not allowing any robbed bags. Both teams stranded 11 runners, reflecting the attacking nature of the contest despite the relatively low scoreline.
Jared Kloth earned the win on the mound for Wheaton via an impressive four-inning performance, giving up zero hits and runs despite facing 15 Big Blue batters.
Sean Smith pitched the final two innings to earn his second save of the season, striking out two batters and also not surrendering any runs.
Ben Weaver led the way with three hits and two RBI in game two today, while
Noah Yi and
Matthias Haggerty both tallied a pair of hits, one RBI, and one run.
Joe Klein registered two hits to his name, and
Harrison Stanton and
Luke Hamm both came up with a hit and scored one run.
Wheaton will look to keep up the momentum on the road when the team heads into the city to face North Park on Tuesday evening in their second meeting of the year.
