Contact: Nicholas Osterloo, Assistant Sports Information Director, 630-637-5324
CAROL STREAM, Ill (Apr. 1, 2023) - Opening up College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin play, the North Central College baseball team dropped both ends of a doubleheader against Wheaton College on Saturday at Lee Pfund Stadium.
Game one saw the Thunder take an early lead as a Joe Klein home run gave Wheaton a 3-0 lead after the first inning. Starting pitcher Luke Lamm settled in and struck out two Wheaton batters in the second inning.
After a Joe Hamilton and Dom Listi single in the top of the third, Michael Davis singled to score the first run of the game for the Cardinals. Justin Rios was hit by a pitch to load the bases for Jared Wojcik who hit an RBI single and brought the game to 3-2. The Thunder responded with two more runs in the bottom half of the third to hold a 5-2 advantage.
Wheaton opened up the game the next inning with four runs on three hits and one Cardinals error in the fourth before tacking on another in the fifth to take a 10-2 lead. Matt Ambrose entered the game in the sixth inning and forced a Thunder double play to end the inning. He also held Wheaton scoreless in the seventh inning.
Rios drew a one-out walk, followed by a Wojcik single to right field. With runners in scoring position, Trey Roach brought home Rios and Wojcik on a two-run single to make the score 10-4.
In the ninth, John Michael Scumaci reached on an error by the Thunder before Listi singled to left field. Davis loaded the bases on another Wheaton error. Rios drove in two with a single through the left side to cut the Cardinals' deficit to four, 10-6. Luke Lehnen singled to load the bases again but the Thunder forced a double play ball to clinch the 10-6 win.
Listi tallied three hits and scored two runs while Rios and Roach drove in two runs each. Lamm suffered the loss as he threw four innings, allowing seven earned runs while striking out five. Ambrose finished with 2.2 innings pitched, two strikeouts, and no runs allowed.
Game two saw Wheaton take a 2-0 lead in the first inning as the Thunder took advantage of two Cardinals errors. North Central responded in the top of the second with a leadoff triple from Luke Lehnen, who now holds the program record for career triples with 15. He scored on the next at bat on a Dave Fitzpatrick RBI single. With Fitzpatrick on third, Scumaci hit a sacrifice fly to even the game at 2-2. After drawing a two-out walk, Listi came around to score on a Thunder error. North Central scored their fourth run on the game on a wild pitch to take a 4-2 lead after two innings of play.
Wheaton answered in the bottom of the third inning to tie the game at 4-4. Neither team scored until the sixth inning when the Thunder retook the lead on an RBI single from Kyle Wu. They added another run in the seventh on an RBI double.
John Petty took advantage of a pinch-hit opportunity and doubled down the right field line. With two outs, Listi hit a clutch RBI single to bring the Cardinals within one, 6-5. In the ninth, Wheaton locked up the win to sweep the doubleheader.
Eight different Cardinals recorded a hit on the day as Hamilton tallied two hits. Starting pitcher Ryan Behling picked up his first loss of the year, allowing five runs, three earned runs with one strikeout. Jason Shanner threw 1.1 innings and struck out two while holding the Thunder scoreless.
North Central wraps up the season series with Wheaton on Monday afternoon. The game is set for 1 p.m. at Zimmerman Stadium.
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