Swider follows Cato as CCIW player of week

For the second week in a row, a Wheaton College baseball player has been named the CCIW hitter of the week.

Junior Justin Swider was given the honor after going 7-12 with a home run and 4 RBI in the team’s four games last week. Swider follows his teammate Desmond Cato, who was named player of the week following his own 4 RBI week.

Unfortunately for the Thunder, the impressive hitting numbers haven’t been enough to keep the team consistent throughout the year.

Following a slow nonconference start, the team’s inconsistency has them 6-8 in the conference and in 5th place. In the two weeks during which Cato and Swider were on their hot streak the team scored 39 runs in the 7 games averaging more than 5 a game. However, because they were unable to hold the opposing offense in check the team went 4-3 over that stretch.

Fortunately for Wheaton, the team seems to have leveled themselves slightly since their slow start and are playing their best offensive baseball with less than two weeks to go before the CCIW tournament.

While the weather has been doing the team no favors, it had another game postponed Tuesday against Benedictine, the team will take the field again Wednesday evening against Millikin. The Thunder play a crucial CCIW series against second-place Augustana this weekend.

North Central: For the first time in her short career, sophomore Kayla Antle has been named the CCIW hitter of the week. Over the last week Antle has hit .538 and scored 4 runs. While the streak has been impressive, it is not entirely out of the ordinary for the third baseman. On the year Antle is hitting an impressive .400, leads the team in walks and the CCIW in runs scored. The sophomore is just the third member of the Cardinals team to be named one of the players of the week. Joining her are pitchers Andrea Starr and Vlastia Mangia who won it twice. During Antle#146;s award winning week North Central went 7-3, despite dropping two games to first-place Carthage. The Cardinals take the field again Thursday at home against Lake Forest.