Contact: Nicholas Osterloo, Assistant Sports Information Director, 630-637-5324
NAPERVILLE, Ill. (Apr. 3, 2023) - Wrapping up the season series with Wheaton College, the North Central College baseball team dropped their fourth game in a row as they lost 12-6 to the Thunder on Monday afternoon.
Neither team scored a run as starting pitchers Anthony Raineri and Jared Kloth settled in. In the top of the third, three walks loaded the bases for the Thunder. Two Cardinals errors later and a three-run home run sparked a nine-run inning for Wheaton to break the game open.
Fighting their way back into the game, John Michael Scumaci singled and Dom Listi walked before a Michael Davis single loaded the bases with no outs. Justin Rios hit a sacrifice fly to score Scumaci. After a Luke Lehnen single, another sacrifice fly plated Listi to score the Cardinals' second run of the game. With the bases loaded, Joe Hamilton drew a hit-by-pitch to score Davis and put the game at 6-3 after four innings.
Listi singled and moved to second on a past ball in the bottom half of the fifth. Davis drove in his first run of the day to score Listi and bring North Central within five, 9-4. The Thunder added three insurance runs in the seventh as the first three batters reached base before two RBI singles and a sacrifice fly made the score 12-4.
Cole Gregorio and Brent Swenson each singled with two outs in the bottom of the eighth. Trey Roach pinch hit and delivered an RBI single to right field to plate Gregorio. Listi tripled in the bottom of the ninth to extend his program-bets 18th triple. He came around to score on a sacrifice fly from Danny Nuccio but it wasn't enough as Wheaton won, 12-6.
Listi tallied three runs on two hits to extend his on-base streak to 56 straight games, the sixth-longest streak in DIII history. Davis and Swenson each recorded two hits on the day. Raineri suffered his first loss of the season, posting a five-run (three earned), three-strikeout outing. Joe McKermitt, Matt Ambrose, Gavin Gawronski, and Justin Rios all held Wheaton scoreless in their appearances on the mound.
Nathan Hedlund earned the win for the Thunder with four innings pitched, two strikeouts, and two earned runs on the day. Ben Weaver and Jacob Snyder each drove in three runs while Larken Lancaster recorded three hits.
North Central looks to claim their first conference win of the season tomorrow as they travel to Augustana College. The first pitch is set for 6 p.m. at Swanson Stadium.
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