Box Score The Aurora University baseball team traveled to Wheaton College and lost to the Thunder 6-4 on Thursday afternoon.

Wheaton got on the scoreboard first off AU starting pitcher Colin Hart with a triple and sacrifice fly-out in the bottom of the second inning.

The Spartans tied the game at 1-1 in the top of the fifth inning. The AU bats had been kept silent until Rafer Cooley singled with two outs. Two more singles followed, one by Daniel Walczak and a run scoring single by Ryan Rybakowski knotted the game up.

The Thunder got to Hart again in the sixth inning with two singles with the second scoring the go-ahead run for a 2-1 Wheaton lead.

Spartan freshman Ottavio Dattalo came in to relieve Hart in the seventh and the Thunder took advantage of the new arm. Dattalo faced five hitters and only recorded one out as Wheaton scored three times to take a 5-1 lead. Sophomore Christian Smith came in on relief of Dattalo and got the Spartans out of the inning.

AU got one run back in the top of the eighth with Michael Chervin singling to score Jared Swain with the second AU run of the day.

Wheaton answered back with a run in the bottom of the inning, without having a single until after the run had crossed the plate. A hit by pitch, stolen base, wild pitch and ground out accounted for the run.

Facing a four-run deficit in the ninth, AU did not go home quietly. Tanner Oymaian got the inning started with a walk and moved to second on a single by Zach Flores. With two-outs, Swain was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Jake Monson drew a run scoring walk to keep the bases loaded for Chervin and a 6-3 deficit. Flores scored during the Chervin at-bat with the aid of a wild pitch. But Chervin struck out with runners on second and third to end the Spartan rally.

AU is now 4-10 overall on the season. Next action for the Spartan baseball team comes on Friday, March 21 when they travel to North Park University. Game time is set for 5:00 p.m. in Chicago, Ill.