Bloomington, Ill. - The Thunder baseball team continued its recent run of success on Friday night with a 2-1 win at Illinois Wesleyan in the opener of the final CCIW series of the regular season. With the win, Wheaton pulls into a second place tie in the CCIW standings with the Titans at 12-7 in conference play. Wheaton improves to 19-19 overall while the Titans fall to 24-12. The two teams will conclude their three-game series on Saturday with a 1 PM doubleheader at Lee Pfund Stadium.

Wheaton scored two runs on six hits with no errors while the Titans plated one run on eight hits with one error. Peter Moran outdueled Illinois Wesleyan's Matt Hart to improve to 3-0 on the season. Moran threw seven scoreless innings while scattering five hits and striking out four Titans. Hart took the loss for the Titans after allowing two runs, one earned, over eight innings with seven strikeouts. John Schmitz earned his second save of the season with two innings of work, allowing one run.

After stranding two in the top of the first inning, the Thunder defense was called into action to keep the game scoreless in the bottom of the first. A single and a stolen base placed a runner on second with two outs but the ensuing single would not yield a run as Tyler Sigler (PICTURED RIGHT) fired a rocket from left field to throw out the runner at the plate and maintain the scoreless tie.

The Thunder looked to be the first team on the scoreboad in the top of the third inning when Josh Kimmel and Kyle Mellinger earned consecutive two-out walks. Johnny Peltz followed with a bloop single into short left field. Mellinger was thrown out attempting to move from first to third before Kimmel could touch home plate to earn the run.

Finally, Wheaton was able to piece a rally together in the top of the seventh when Sigler led off with a single to right field. Attempting to bunt Sigler to second, John McKenna reached to base on an error and both runners were bunted over by Kyle Trivits. Matt Schappell followed with a run-scoring groudout to give Wheaton a 1-0 lead.

After the shaky first inning, Peter Moran did not allow a Titan to reach scoring position until a pair of singles put runners at the corners with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning. Moran was able to enduce a groundout to end the inning.

Johnny Peltz (PICTURED LEFT) added to Wheaton's lead with a line drive home run to left field in the top of the eighth to make the score 2-0 Thunder. The Titans seemed poised to level the score in the home half of the eighth when a two-out double plated one run but Sigler's strong throw from the fence in left-center forced the runner rounding third to stop and trip and fall in the process. Matt Krause's relay throw led to a tag between third and home to keep the lead at 2-1. Schmitz slammed the door in the ninth to preserve the 2-1 win.

Johnny Peltz led the Thunder attack with three of Wheaton's six hits. Matt Schappell, Tyler Sigler and Kyle Mellinger were all 1-for-4.

Wheaton will honor its seniors prior to Saturday's 1 PM doubleheader.