Bloomington, Ill. – The Wheaton baseball team participated in the 2025 CCIW Baseball Tournament on Wednesday afternoon at Horenberger Field in Bloomington, Illinois. The No. 5 seeded Thunder faced fourth seed Millikin in an elimination game to open the tournament. Millikin topped the Thunder 5-2 in today's contest as the Big Blue continue on to the double-elimination portion of the tournament beginning tomorrow. Wheaton concludes the 2025 campaign with a 16-25 overall record.
Freshman starting pitcher
Nate Burden tossed 4-2/3 innings for the Thunder. He allowed five runs, including three earned runs, on six hits, with two strikeouts and three walks.
Jack Lindsay pitched 1-1/3 innings of scoreless relief, allowing one hit, with one walk.
Josh Ortiz pitched 1-2/3 innings of relief, with zero runs allowed, recording one strikeout and two walks allowed.
JD Van Hook pitched 1/3 of an inning of scoreless relief.
Freshman centerfielder
Braden Engel led the Thunder offense with two hits, including a double, as he was 2-for-4, scoring both of Wheaton's runs in the game. Seniors
Daniel Hillyer,
Noah Yi and
Payton McClowry each collected a single in their final game for the Thunder, with Hillyer tallying one RBI. Junior third baseman
Nathan Hedlund also hit a single.
Yi hit a one-out single for the Thunder in the top of the first inning. However, Wheaton was unable to capitalize on the baserunner. The Big Blue capitalized on a Wheaton error in the bottom of the first inning as Millikin tallied two unearned runs to take a 2-0 lead. The Big Blue added a run in the bottom of the third inning to extend the lead to 3-0.
Wheaton scored a run in the top of the fifth inning to trim the Millikin lead to 3-1. Engel led off the top of the fifth inning with a single to left field and he stole second base in the next at bat. Hillyer then hit a two-out single to left field that drove in Engel for Wheaton's first run. Millikin responded with two runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to increase their lead to 5-1.
Engel led off the top of the seventh inning with a double to right centerfield. He advanced to third base on a wild pitch, and then another wild pitch in the following at bat allowed Engel to score as his run accounted for the 5-2 final score.
