GAME STATS Carol Stream, Ill. - The Thunder baseball team dropped the opener of its final series of the regular season, falling 8-1 to the Maroons of the University of Chicago. The loss drops Wheaton to 16-22 on the season while the Maroons improve to 25-13. The two teams will conclude the series with a Saturday doubleheader beginning at 1 pm at Lee Pfund Stadium.

Wheaton struck first on Friday night after starter Carson Grier pitched his way out of bases loaded jam in the top of the second inning. Will Clegg led off the home half of the second by turning around a two-strike offering for a solo homer to put Wheaton ahead 1-0. Grier weaved his way in and out of traffic in the third and fourth innings to cap his night with four scoreless innings on the mound while surrendering four hits and striking out six.

Chicago got to the Wheaton bullpen immediately in the top of the fifth inning when the visitors took advantage of four hit batsmen to strike for six runs including four with two outs to take a 6-1 lead. The Maroons added a two-out, two-run double in the top of the seventh to push the lead out to 8-1. Both teams would go on to strand a pair of runs in the eighth inning with the Maroons closing out the ninth to wrap up the 8-1 victory.

The Maroons tallied eight runs on 10 hits while Wheaton pushed across its run on four hits with Will Clegg pacing the attack with two of the four hits. Both teams committed one error.