Game 1 Box Score

Game 2 Box Score

Apr. 1, 2009 – The North Central College baseball team suffered a pair of close losses to archrival Wheaton College on Wednesday at Zimmerman Stadium, losing the first game of the double header, 5-4, in 10 innings, before coming out on the short end of a 19-17 slugfest in the nightcap.

The Cardinals (2-11, 1-4 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin) suffered their first home losses of the season and have lost six games by one or two runs.

Wednesday's first game was scoreless until the third inning, when Wheaton strung together a pair of singles and took advantage of a wild pitch to tack on a run. The Thunder (9-11, 2-3 CCIW) also scored a run in both the fourth and fifth innings to take a 3-0 advantage into the sixth.

North Central then broke up the shutout with two runs, scoring on a double by Matt Abraham and a groundout by Michael Corrigan. The Thunder scored an unearned run in the eighth before the hosts scored two more runs in the bottom of the inning to force an extra frame. Abraham scored on an error and Joe Heller drove in the tying run with a single.

Wheaton third baseman Mark Price came through with an RBI single with two out in the 10th to drive in the winning run for the Thunder.

Nick Robinson went 3 for at the plate for the Cardinals, while Corrigan also added a double in the game. Michael McGrath pitched eight innings in his first collegiate start, allowing two earned runs on nine hits while striking out seven. Ricky Foytik pitched the final two innings and was assigned the loss (0-1), yielding one run on two hits and striking out two.

The Thunder jumped on some shaky North Central pitching early in the second game, scoring seven runs in the first inning on just three hits. Wheaton also drew three walks and took advantage of two errors and a hit batter.

The Cardinals responded in kind in the second inning, erupting for eight runs to gain a one-run lead. Nick Robinson opened the scoring with an RBI groundout, Heller scored on a wild pitch, Matt Burke drove in a run with a bunt single, Corrigan brought home two runs with a single, and Andrew Wulbecker sent a three-run home run over the left-center field fence to nudge North Central in front, 8-7.

The reprieve, however, was short-lived, as Wheaton used four hits and four walks to post a second-straight seven-run inning and grab a 14-8 edge. A solo home run by Robinson got one run back for the Cardinals in the third, Dan Scott fouled out to drive in a run in the fifth, and Steve Hlavac's single scored another run in th sixth to narrow the gap to 14-11.

The Thunder gave itself some extra breathing room in the bottom of the sixth, scoring three runs with two outs to pull ahead, 17-11, but North Central still had a rally in store, scoring five times in the seventh inning to trail by just one run, 17-16. Scott turned in a run-scoring single, Abraham brought home a run with a groundout, Wulbecker added an RBI double, and Hlavac and Robinson each plated runs with singles.

The Cardinals pulled even with their 17th run in the eighth inning, as Abraham singled to score Scott. In the bottom of the eighth, however, a pair of walks and an error allowed Wheaton to score twice without recording a hit to complete the sweep.

Wulbecker went 5 for 6 at the plate for North Central, recording the highest single-game hit total of any Cardinal so far this season. Corrigan went 3 for 5, while Hlavac and Robinson each went 3 for 6. David Williams, one of 10 North Central pitchers to take the mound in the nightcap, got the loss (0-1), surrendering two unearned runs.

The Cardinals are scheduled to play a CCIW double header at Illinois Wesleyan University on Saturday, beginning at 1 p.m.