Carol Stream, Ill. – The Wheaton baseball team hosted North Central College for a CCIW doubleheader at Lee Pfund Stadium on Saturday afternoon. The Thunder swept the Cardinals as the hosts convincingly won the first game 10-6 and the hosts won the second game 6-5. Wheaton has now its last four games.
 
North Central, ranked 16^th in this week's D3baseball.com Top-25, is now 11-6 overall and 0-2 in CCIW play. The Thunder are 10-8 on the season with a 2-0 mark in CCIW play. Today's sweep by the Thunder marked the first time since 2012 that Wheaton has swept the Cardinals in a CCIW doubleheader and the first time since 2017 that the Thunder won the regular season series against NCC.
 
Wheaton won today's opening game 10-6 as the Thunder scored 10 runs, on 11 hits, with two errors and the Cardinals recorded six runs, on 11 hits, with two errors. Wheaton starting pitcher John McCraith (3-1) earned the win in five innings on the mound. McCraith allowed two earned runs, on five hits, with three strikeouts and one walk allowed. Caleb Vankerkhoff earned the save in four innings of relief. He allowed four runs, including two earned runs, on six hits, with one walk and two strikeouts.
 
Thunder leftfielder Joe Klein was 2-for-3, with two walks, a home run, three RBI and one run scored. Klein's homer was his team-leading ninth of the season. Klein's effort this season is already tied for fourth on Wheaton's single-season home run list, just three round-trippers behind Justin Zeller's school-record 12 homers in the 2010 season.
 
Centerfielder Ben Weaver was 2-for-4, with three runs scored and two RBI. Second baseman Kyle Wu was 2-for-4, with a triple as he scored two runs. Harrison Stanton was 2-for-5, with two runs scored. Catcher Luke Hamm was 2-for-4, with a run scored and an RBI.
 
Wheaton gained an early 3-0 lead with three runs in the bottom of the first inning. Klein hit a two-run home run over the fence in centerfield and Matthias Haggerty drove in a run in the opening inning as well. The Cardinals scored twice in the top of the third inning to cut Wheaton's lead to 3-2. Weaver and Klein each hit an RBI-single in the bottom of the third inning to give Wheaton a 5-2 advantage.
 
The hosts added four more runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to increase its lead to 9-2. A two-run double by Mason Diel highlighted the inning for the hosts and Weaver also drove in a run. Hamm hit an RBI-single in the bottom of the fifth inning to increase Wheaton's lead to 10-2. The Cardinals scored twice in the eighth inning and the guests added two unearned runs in the top of the ninth to account for the 10-6 final score in Wheaton's win.
 
The Thunder earned a closely contested 6-5 victory in the nightcap tonight. Wheaton scored six runs, on 12 hits, with one error and NCC scored five runs, on nine hits, with two errors. Thunder starting pitcher Nate Barker tossed 1-2/3 innings as he allowed four runs, including two earned runs, on five hits, with two strikeouts and one walk. Rutledge Feltel (1-2) had an outstanding outing in 5-1/3 innings of relief as he held the Cardinals to just one hit, with two strikeouts and three walks. Brendan Dyer picked up the save in two innings of relief as he allowed one run, scattering three hits, with three strikeouts and one walk.
 
Wu was 3-for-4, with a run scored and RBI. Jacob Snyder was 2-for-4, with a triple and three RBI. Haggerty was 2-for-5, with a double, and a run scored.
 
Similar to their start in the opener, Wheaton scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the first inning to gain an early 2-0. Klein drove in a run with an RBI-single and Harrison Stanton scored an unearned on a NCC throwing error off the ball hit by Klein. North Central responded with four runs in the top of the second inning to gain a 4-2 lead. Wheaton tallied a pair of runs in the bottom of the third inning to tie the game at 4-4. Both of Wheaton's runs in the third inning came off of a triple by Snyder.
 
The hosts added a run in the bottom of the sixth inning to gain a 5-4 lead. Wu hit an RBI-single in the sixth that scored Larken Lancaster. Wheaton added a critical insurance run in the bottom of the seventh inning. Haggerty scored the insurance run off of a ground-rule double by Snyder that bounced over the rightfield fence. North Central scored a run in the top of the eighth inning to trim the Thunder lead to 6-5. Dyer pitched well in the ninth inning to secure the save, the win and the twinbill sweep for the hosts.
    
The Thunder and Cardinals are scheduled to close out the three-game series on Monday afternoon with a 1:00 p.m. first pitch in Naperville. Monday's game is a make-up game for the originally scheduled series opener that was postponed on Friday afternoon due to weather.