WHEATON, Il.- The University of Northwestern Baseball team kicked off a three game stretch in Illinois on Monday when they competed in a true road game against Wheaton College. The Eagles dropped the contest to the host Thunder 15-5 in seven innings.
Sam Szymanski (Woodbury, Minn./Homeschool) got the start on the mound for the Eagles and was dialed in early; pitching very well early in the ball game. The right hander held the explosive Thunder offense to only one run through the first three innings. Meanwhile, UNW's offense got their pitcher some early run support.
In the top of the third inning, trailing 1-0,
Daniel Peterson (Burlington, Wis./Burlington) hit a leadoff single. Peterson would then advance to third when
Aaron Severson (Columbia Heights, Minn./Columbia Heights) got on base due to an error at third. Peterson would score the tying run when
Isaac Pilon (Robbinsdale, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong) hit a groundball to second base and Severson would score the go ahead run when
Benji Bruce (Minneapolis, Minn./Maranatha Christian) hit a groundball to the shortstop. UNW held a 2-1 lead after three innings.
After struggling through the opening three frames, the Wheaton offense found their groove from the fourth inning on. The Thunder would grab two runs in the fourth inning thanks to an RBI double and an RBI single. They would then grab four runs in the fifth inning thanks in large part to a three run homerun. In the seventh inning, the game would come to an early end when the home team would put together an onslaught of eight runs which featured each an RBI single, double, triple, and homerun.
The Eagles' offense did push some runs across to make the margin a bit slimmer.
Ben Spores (Arlington, Wash./Arlington) drove in
Bryce Crabb (Des Moines, Iowa/Grand View Christian) with an RBI double in the fifth inning and then would score himself thanks to a
Grady Karges (Oriska, N.D./Maple Valley) double. Crabb would then score another run in the seventh inning thanks to a
Benji Bruce (Minneapolis, Minn./Maranatha Christian) triple. The final score finished 15-5 in favor of Wheaton College.
Up Next
The Eagles will finish up their trip to Illinois when play two games against two separate opponents on Tuesday. UNW will square off with Saint Mary's University at 11:00 AM and #22 Aurora University at 2:00 P.M.
