Judah Newby
Staff Writer
Though it has not been a particularly smooth beginning to the CCIW season, the Wheaton Thunder baseball team broke into the conference win column earlier in the week and looks to build upon that momentum heading into a three-game series with North Park University this weekend.
Wheaton (5-14; 1-4 CCIW) defeated the Elmhurst Bluejays 6-2 in the second game of a doubleheader played Tuesday, April 2, at Lee Pfund Stadium. Freshman pitcher Josh Arevalo earned the victory, thanks to eight strong innings in which he allowed just two runs on six hits. The right-hander struck out six Bluejay hitters along the way and did not allow a walk en route to earning his first collegiate win. Junior Evan Rahn relieved Arevalo in the ninth inning and threw a perfect frame to seal the initial conference victory.
The Thunder needed just three hitters in the first inning to take the game’s first lead, as sophomore Matt Krause reached on a single to center field and advanced all the way to third on a fielding error. Senior Phil Tuttle followed with a sacrifice fly to left field to score Krause and give Wheaton the 1-0 lead. They added a second run in the third when freshman Josh Kimmel drew a one-out walk and promptly stole second base.
Krause followed suit with a single and a stolen base of his own, putting runners at second and third, leading to Kimmel scoring on a passed ball to make it 2-0 through three.
Elmhurst scored once in both the fifth and sixth innings to tie it at 2-2, but Tuttle gave the Thunder the lead back in the bottom of the sixth with a one-out single to center, scoring Kimmel for the second time in the game. Sophomore Matt Schappell extended the lead to 4-2 in the seventh with his one-out single to right-center, scoring junior John Jensen-Johnson.
Jensen-Johnson tripled to center field to begin the inning before scoring on Schappell’s hit. Freshman designated hitter Michael Kaufman put the game firmly in the Thunder’s hands with a two-run double in the eighth inning that scored Tuttle and junior Justin Swider, accounting for the final score of 6-2.
Krause and Kaufman each finished with a pair of hits, while both Kaufman and Tuttle drove in two runs. The Thunder struck out just once as a team in the ball game, outhitting the Bluejays 10-6 in the process.
Wheaton was not as fortunate in the first game of the doubleheader, as Elmhurst broke a 3-3 tie in the sixth inning with a run.
The Thunder rallied in the last of the ninth, putting the tying run on third base with less than two outs, but a strikeout and a groundout ended the ball game. The loss put the Thunder’s conference record at 0-4 and extended their losing streak to seven before the second game’s victory.
The conference season opened last weekend as the Thunder hosted a three-game series with Illinois Wesleyan University. Despite playing close games in two of the three contests, Wesleyan escaped each with a hard-fought victory. Wheaton dropped the Friday opener 2-4 before falling in game two 2-7 and coming up short in a game three slugfest, 12-13.
This weekend welcomes a three-game CCIW series with North Park University Vikings (11-9; 4-1 CCIW). The Vikings split a doubleheader with Carthage College on Tuesday, April 2, after starting the year 3-0 with a sweep of Millikin last weekend. On Tuesday, Vikings outfielder Kyle Williams and pitcher Nick Vidas were both named CCIW player and pitcher of the week, respectively. North Park won both the conference regular season and tournament championships in 2012 and won the regular season series with the Thunder two games to one.
Games one and two will be played in Chicago on Friday, April 5, beginning at 3 p.m. Game three sees a shift in location, as the Thunder will host the Vikings at Lee Pfund Stadium on Saturday, April 6, at 1 p.m.
Photo Credit: Allison Freet
Printed in the April 5, 2013 issue of The Wheaton Record. Send comments to the.record@my.wheaton.edu.