May 4, 2013

Wheaton and Carthage spilt a key CCIW doubleheader on Saturday

More news about: Wheaton (Ill.)

Batting

Carthage
2B: Matt Cmiel
3B: none
HR: none
Wheaton (Ill.)
2B: none
3B: none
HR: none
full stats

Carol Stream, Ill. – The Wheaton College baseball team split a CCIW doubleheader with Carthage College on Saturday at Wheaton's Lee Pfund Stadium. Carthage rallied from a 4-1 deficit to win the first game 6-5 and Wheaton was a 3-1 victor in the nightcap.

Today's split, paired with yesterday's 6-1 Wheaton win against Carthage eliminates Carthage from contention for the four-team CCIW baseball tournament next week in Bloomington Illinois. Wheaton is now 14-24 overall and 10-11 in CCIW play. In this weekend's other key series with CCIW Tournament implications, North Central swept a doubleheader at Elmhurst to eliminate the Bluejays from CCIW Tournament contention.

If North Central wins Sunday's game to wrap up the three-game series between the two teams, the Cardinals will go to the CCIW Tournament in fourth place with an 11-10 record. If North Central loses, both Wheaton and the Cardinals would be tied for fourth place at 10-11 and Wheaton would participate in next weekend's tournament on a tiebreaker, thanks to Wheaton's 2-1 advantage against the Cardinals in the season series this spring.

Wheaton was a 3-1 winner in today's second game as the Thunder scored three runs, on six hits, with no errors and Carthage scored one run, on six hits, with two errors. Freshman pitcher Josh Arevalo (3-2) was outstanding today to earn the win in 6-2/3 innings. Arevalo allowed one run, on six hits, with four strikeouts and no walks. Freshman Tom Bishop earned his first collegiate save, getting the final out of the game to ground out and ending the game.

Senior Phil Tuttle was 2-for-3 in his final collegiate home game, with two RBI. Matt Schappell, Justin Swider, Kyle Mellinger and John Jensen-Johnson each added singles for the hosts.

All of the scoring in the game occurred in the third inning as Carthage scored one run in the top of the third inning and Wheaton countered with three runs in the bottom of the third. Schappell tied the game with a RBI-single and Tuttle drove in the go-ahead run and insurance run with a two-run single to right field. Once Wheaton had the lead, Arevalo scattered four three hits over his next 3-2/3 innings of work.

Carthage won today's first game 6-5 as the Red Men scored six runs, on 11 hits, with one error and Wheaton plated five runs, on six hits, with two errors. Evan Rahn (4-5) took the loss for the Thunder in seven innings. Rahn allowed six runs, including five earned runs, on 11 hits, with five strikeouts and two walks. Justin Swider was 2-for-4, with three RBI for the Thunder.

Wheaton scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the first inning to take a 2-0 lead as Swider hit a two-run single. Carthage cut Wheaton's lead to 2-1 with a run in the top of the second inning. Wheaton increased its lead to 4-1 in the bottom of the second inning as Swider added another RBI-single and Schappell scored on a wild pitch. Carthage scored a run in the top of the fourth and added another in the top of the sixth inning to cut Wheaton's edge to 4-3.

Wheaton increased its lead to 5-3 in the bottom of the sixth inning on a RBI-single through the middle of the infield by freshman Josh Kimmel. Carthage responded in the top of the seventh inning with three runs to take its first lead of the game at 6-5 and the Red Men shut the door on the Thunder in the bottom of the seventh to win the game.