CAROL STREAM, Ill. – Carroll University (18-14, 6-12 CCIW) earned a hard-fought victory on the road Friday night over Wheaton College (14-19, 5-13 CCIW) by the final score of 5-3 in 11 innings.

On the cold and occasionally rainy night, Carroll would score first in the top of the third inning.  Junior Matt Putman would lead off the inning drawing a walk and advance to second on a Jake Langford single.  A wild pitch would move both runners up and Putman would eventually score on a passed ball to give the Pioneers the 1-0 lead.

Wheaton would tally single runs in the bottom of the fourth and fifth innings to give the Thunder the 2-1 advantage.

Putman would again start the rally as he would lead off the top of the seventh with a single to right field.  Langford would advance Putman to second on a hard hit ball misplayed by the Wheaton second baseman.  Alex Kermendy would then move both runners over with a sacrifice bunt.  AJ Johnson would send a ground ball to the right side allowing Putman to score and even the game at two.

Wheaton would look to break the game open in the bottom of the seventh as they loaded the bases with no outs.  A fly out to right field would bring home a run to give the Thunder the 3-2 lead, but a strike out and fly out would limit the damage for the Pioneers.

Wheaton would hold their advantage going into the ninth inning. Hunter Frey would double to start the frame, but a strike out and ground out would leave him standing at third base with two outs.  Down to the last out, Kermendy would send the ball back up the middle to knot the game up 3-3 and send the game to extra innings.

After a scoreless top of the tenth for the Pios, Wheaton would threaten in the bottom of the 10^th.  The lead-off batter of the inning.  The next batter would bunt the ball back to the pitcher, but the throw attempting to retire the lead runner was wide and left runners at first and second with no outs.  Wheaton would again bunt to advance the runners, but a perfectly executed wheel play would enable the Pios to retire the lead runner and keep runners at first and second with one out.   A ground ball to short would lead to a 6-4-3 double-play to end the threat and send the game tied to the 11^th inning.

Mike Rufer would lead-off the 11^th with a single to left field and Fry would walk.  A bunt attempt would be popped up leading to a double play as Frey was caught off of first and leaving Rufer at second with two outs.  The next batter, Jake Langford would send a ground ball through the left side of the infield and Rufer would beat the throw home to give the Pios the 4-3 lead.  Langford would steal second and advance to third on a fielding error to put runners at first and third with two outs.  An errant throw to the pitcher would allow Langford to score from third and give Carroll the 5-3 lead heading to the bottom of the 11^th.

Sophomore Max Maney would enter in the bottom half and would record two fly ball outs to right field before striking out the final batter of the inning to lock down his school record fifth save of the season.

Jacob Horner (2-0) would pick up the win working scoreless ninth and tenth innings on the mound. 

Four Pioneer pitchers would combine to strike out eleven batters while surrendering just five hits on the evening.

Carroll will host Wheaton on Saturday in a double-header starting at 1pm.