Bloomington, Ill. – The Wheaton softball team traveled to the campus of Illinois Wesleyan University on Thursday afternoon for Wheaton's first CCIW Tournament appearance since 2021. The sixth-seeded Thunder faced the third seed Millikin Big Blue in an elimination game. The Big Blue defeated the Thunder 3-0 to end Wheaton's season with an 18-22 record. Millikin advanced to the double elimination portion of the tournament and will face Augustana later this evening.

The Big Blue earned the 3-0 win with three runs, on eight hits, with zero errors. Wheaton had zero runs, on one hit, with one error. Freshman starting pitcher Kennedy Kemp was strong today in six innings of work in the circle. She allowed three earned runs, on eight hits, with one strike and one walk. Millikin starting pitcher Kelsey Bruno stymied Wheaton's bats today as she threw a one-hitter in seven innings. Bruno allowed seven walks, and she struck out 12 Wheaton batters.

Millikin gained a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning on a RBI-groundout. Millikin led off the second inning with a triple to rightfield to set up the RBI-groundout.
Wheaton's defense was sharp throughout most of the game, highlighted by a key run-saving play by catcher Livi Figueroa in the bottom of the fourth inning. Millikin led off the bottom of the fourth inning with another triple. In the following at bat, a Millikin bunt attempt was popped up in foul territory and deftly caught by a diving Figueroa for an out. She then popped up and fired the ball to shortstop Abie Brown, who beat the base runner at third back to the bag as Wheaton executed a terrific double play that took the runner out of scoring position.

Millikin added an insurance run in the bottom of the fifth inning to take a 2-0 lead. In the top of the sixth inning, Thunder senior Paige Andrews lined a single through the left side of the infield to break up Bruno's no-hitter.

Millikin added its third run in the bottom of the sixth inning on a pair of singles including a RBI-single with one out. Leftfielder Isabel Hillyer made a run-saving play in the bottom of the sixth inning, as she made a diving catch on a line drive with a base runner at second base to keep Wheaton within three runs as her spectacular catch sent Wheaton's batters to the plate in the top of the seventh inning.

Note Worthy: Nahorniak's outstanding season leaves her with several spots in the Wheaton record books as her 39 runs scored and 57 total hits are both tied for the second-highest single-season totals in those respective categories…her .449 (57-for-127) batting average this season is tied for eighth…the 39 RBI by Abby Whitehead this year is tied for fourth in Wheaton's single-season record books, while her seven home runs this year is tied for seventh…Paige Andrews departs the program as its all-time leader in games played with 180, and her 165 career hits is sixth all-time…Andrews' 45 career doubles is fourth all-time and she is sixth in the career record books with 93 RBI…Nahorniak's 159 career hits ranks eighth all-time at Wheaton, and her 35 career doubles ranks eighth…following two seasons at Wheaton, Whitehead has moved into seventh place in program history in slugging percentage with a .586 career slugging percentage.