Rock Island, Ill. -- The Thunder softball team took to the road one last time in 2023 for a conference twinbill at Augustana this afternoon. Wheaton was competitive in both contests on Saturday but narrowly missed out on a season-ending win, as the Vikings took game one by a score of 4-2 before edging their visitors 6-5 in the second matchup. Wheaton ends its season with an overall record of 7-28 and a 2-14 mark in conference action.
After a defensive start to the day's first contest, the Thunder notched two runs in the top of the third inning to move into a 2-1 lead.
Alese Antonello was responsible for the pair of scores, blasting a home run over the left field wall to bring herself and
Paige Andrews across home plate. Unfortunately for the traveling side, they could only muster two more hits in the remainder of the contest as the Vikings blanketed the Wheaton offense to secure a game one win. Augustana tied the game back up at 2-2 via a sacrifice fly in the fifth inning, before walking it off with a two-run homer of their own in the bottom of the seventh frame.
Augie tallied seven hits to Wheaton's five in the first matchup on Saturday, with the Thunder committing the lone error of the game. Both teams left six runners stranded on base through the seven innings of play.
Paige Andrews pitched the full game in the circle for Wheaton to begin the day, and she tallied a pair of strikeouts to bring her season total to 32 blanked batters.
Antonello led the team in hits and RBI in game one with a pair in each category, while Andrews joined her fellow pitcher on one run scored and registered a hit, as well.
Abigail Latka and
Madison Forberg each posted one hit for Wheaton in the first game.
The second matchup on Saturday proved to be a front-loaded game in terms of scoring, as all 11 runs came in the first three innings. Augustana jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the second inning following a pair of RBI singles and one two-RBI double. The Thunder looked to respond quickly by earning two hits in the bottom half, but the hosts managed to end the inning before Wheaton could bring either runner in to score. A two-RBI single into right field seemingly gave the Vikings an insurmountable 6-0 cushion one inning later.
But Wheaton was not prepared to end its season without a fight. The Thunder rattled off five runs in the bottom of the third frame to make Augustana sweat and nearly erase the deficit altogether. After
Elizabeth Meyer and
Paige Andrews each came up with a single to get on base,
Alese Antonello smacked a well-timed double down the right field line to bring two runs across the plate.
Kylie Chetakian immediately followed this up with a deep single to reduce the Vikings' lead to three runs.
Elise O'Neil joined in the fun with a two-run double to left center, and in the blink of an eye, the deficit was down to a single score. Sadly for the away side, the scoring surge came to an end thereafter, as the hosts prevented the next three batters from reaching base and stranded the tying run on third.
The next two innings were three-up, three-down affairs with the Thunder failing to generate any more offensive momentum. But the last two frames in the contest ended up being cruel cases of deja vu, with Wheaton managing to get the tying run up to third base but not being able to bring the score home before Augie escaped from the series. The silver lining to Wheaton's comeback attempt falling just short, however, was the sharp pitching and fielding from the visitors after the third inning that saw Augustana earn zero hits and not proceed any further than the second bag.
Both teams generated nine hits and committed one error, reflecting the even nature of today's second game. The Thunder left six runners on base, but this was surpassed by Augie's eight stranded baserunners.
Elise O'Neil (
pictured left) pitched four innings in her final appearance for the Thunder and was superb in the circle, striking out two Vikings and not allowing any hits or runs from 16 batters faced. The senior from Concord, New Hampshire also came up with two RBI off of one hit for Wheaton in game two today.
Kylie Chetakian had an all-around performance, going for two hits, one RBI, a run, and stealing one base. The freshman was joined on two hits by
Elizabeth Meyer and
Abigail Latka, with the former also tallying a run.
Alese Antonello and
Paige Andrews each accounted for a run and a hit in game two, with Antonello also posting two RBI.
The Thunder will now enter the offseason before returning to campus in the fall to begin preparations for the 2024 campaign.
