Carol Stream, Ill. - The Wheaton baseball team celebrated its Senior Day on Saturday afternoon with a doubleheader sweep of the Illinois Wesleyan University Titans.With beautiful weather at Lee Pfund Stadium, Thunder pitching led the way, allowing just one run on the day as Wheaton collected wins of 4-1 and 3-0. The two victories clinched Wheaton's spot in next week's CCIW Tournament and catapulted the Thunder into second place in the CCIW standings. Wheaton (24-15, 14-9 CCIW) will conclude its regular season on Monday when the Thunder travel to North Central (20-15, 15-8 CCIW) for a 3:30 PM first pitch. The winner of Monday's contest will serve as the host for the upcoming CCIW Tournament as the CCIW regular season champion.

In game one, Wheaton struck for four runs on nine hits with two errors while Illinois Wesleyan was held to one run on eight hits with no errors. Daniel Bayer earned the win for the Thunder, scattering eight hits and striking out three in a complete game effort.

Wheaton's offense came early in game one with the Thunder striking for three runs in the bottom of the second inning. Ben Brittain opened the scoring with an RBI single up the middle to score Brett Albaugh. Brittain then stole second base and came in to score on John McKenna's double to left field. Kyle Trivits followed with a double to right field to place Wheaton ahead 3-0. Johnny Peltz added to the lead in the bottom of the third inning with a sacrifice fly to center scoring Jacob Zeller.

The Titans responded with a run in the top of the fourth inning to close to within 4-1 before pitching took over the game. Bayer and Titan reliever David Taylor would allow no more than one hit in a half inning for the rest of the game with Bayer cruising to the finish line for the complete game victory to improve to 5-3 on the season.

​In the second game, Wheaton's three runs came on seven hits while the Titans were limited to just four hits with neither team making an error. Michael McCraith (PICTURED RIGHT) continued his outstanding run of pitching, throwing seven shutout innings with nine strikeouts and allowing four hits to improve to 9-1 on the season. McCraith's nine wins set a new school record for single season wins by a pitcher. Josiah Longenecker threw a scoreless eighth inning and Casey Balikian picked up his first career save with a perfect ninth inning.

McCraith dominated the early action, striking out five of the first six Titan batters in the game. The Titan staff was equally impressive in the early innings, holding Wheaton hitless into the fifth inning. After stranding runners on the corners in the third inning, Illinois Wesleyan's best scoring chance came in the fifth inning when the Titans put runners on second and third with one out. McCraith answered with a strikeout and escaped the jam with a fly out to center field to end the inning.

Jake Lindstedt broke up the no-hit effort in the bottom of the fifth inning with a one-out infield single. Two batters later, Andrew Zuber's walk extended the inning for Nick Mailman who hit a two-out double to left field, scoring both runners and putting Wheaton ahead 2-0. Brittain's RBI groundout in the bottom of the sixth inning scored Peter Newman who had led off the inning with a double to right field. That would prove to be all the offense needed for the Thunder as Wheaton pitchers retired the last 10 Titan batters in order to finish the game.

Note Worthy: Wheaton's 24 wins ties the single season program record established in 2010...Wheaton's 14 CCIW victories ties the single season program record established in 2015.