Carol Stream, Ill. -- After being delayed one day due to unfavorable weather conditions, the Wheaton and Carroll baseball teams met at Lee Pfund Stadium on Thursday evening for the second half of their regular season series. The visiting Pioneers won tonight's matchup by a score of 12-4 to earn a season split with the Thunder following Wheaton's road win in Waukesha last Tuesday. Carroll improves to 12-9 overall and 3-2 in conference play, while Wheaton slips to 2-2 in CCIW action heading into its three-game series against North Central this weekend.

The visitors only posted one more hit than the home side in Thursday's contest at an 8-7 measure, but Wheaton's four errors, ten walks, and four hit-by-pitch situations proved costly compared to Carroll's zero walks and single error. The Pioneers opened the scoring in their first batting series from a sacrifice fly before a wild pitch, RBI double, and fielding mistake helped bring in two more runs for the Wisconsin side in the second frame. Wheaton kept Carroll off the scoreboard for the next three innings but was unable to generate any scoring of its own, registering just three hits through the first six innings, all of which were singles. The Pios extended their advantage to five runs in the top of the sixth, before the Thunder finally found an offensive breakthrough in the next frame thanks to a two-run homer by Rutledge Feltel. The guests scored one run in the eighth inning, then put the game out of reach with six scores in the top of the ninth. Feltel blasted another two-RBI home run over the left field wall in his last at-bat to account for all four of Wheaton's runs on the night.

The Pioneers' starting pitcher was clinical on the mound this evening, conceding just one earned run across eight innings and not walking or hitting any of the 28 batters he faced while also tallying five strikeouts. Josh Ortiz was the first of seven Thunder throwers to see the field on Thursday, and the sophomore also sat down five opposition batters and allowed only two earned runs in his four frames of work. David Levengood made his return to action tonight and joined JD Van Hook and Billy Kessler on one strikeout, while Jack Lindsay collected two. Micah Johnson and Caleb Henderson both saw the mound in the ninth inning, as well.

The senior Feltel posted two hits, two runs, and a game-high four RBI tonight and leads the team with four home runs this season. Luke Hamm was 3-3 at the plate on Thursday, and Braden Engel contributed a hit and a run. Michael Chang entered the game as a pinch runner in the final inning and scored his first career run on home turf from Feltel's second homer.

After posting 1-1 splits against both Wisconsin-based CCIW teams, the Thunder head to Naperville on Friday evening to begin their first three-game series of the conference schedule. Wheaton will face North Central College at 5 PM tomorrow in game one before the two squads meet again at Lee Pfund Stadium on Saturday in a 1 PM & 4 PM doubleheader.