Tucson, Ariz.- The Thunder baseball team snapped a two-game skid on Friday morning with an 18-5 rout of Bethany Lutheran College. Wheaton also defeated Bethany Lutheran 14-13 in 10 innings on Monday. Josh Arevalo turned in a complete game performance, striking out three and allowing all five runs. Wheaton (5-4) batted around in the first, fifth and sixth innings and pounded out 19 hits. The game was called after the seventh inning due to the run-rule. Wheaton wraps up its annual spring trip with a 9 AM local time game against Crown College.

Wheaton went to work from the first pitch, connecting on four hits in the first inning and scoring five runs. John Jensen-Johnson's two-run single was the big blow of the inning. Justin Swider's two-out triple in the second inning started a quick rally for the Thunder that once again featured an RBI single by Johnson as Wheaton took a 7-0 lead after the first two innings.

Bethany Lutheran struck for one run in the bottom of the second and another in the bottom of the fourth inning to pull within 7-2 before Wheaton blew the game open with a six-run fifth inning that featured three extra base hits and saw six consecutive hitters reach base. With Trey Martin on first with one out, Kyle Mellinger drove a triple into the right center field gap that was followed by a similar triple by Michael Kaufman. A walk to Taylor Howe (PICTURED RIGHT) and a passed ball set up Johnny Peltz' two-run double to left that made it 11-2. Josh Kimmel's single plated Peltz and Kimmel would score the last run of the inning on a single by Swider.

After a shutdown inning by Arevalo in the bottom of the fifth, Wheaton's bats continued its outburst in the top of the sixth. Matt Krause's triple started the rally with one out and RBI singles from Kaufman, Peltz, Kimmel and Martin as well as an RBI groundout by Schappell staked Wheaton to an 18-2 lead. The Vikings would add three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to cut the final deficit to 18-5 as the game ended due to the run-rule.

Every Thunder starter collected a hit and an RBI in the game. Each Wheaton hitter that appeared at the plate reached base at least once and all with official at bats had a hit. Martin led the hit parade with three hits and Kimmel, Swider, Johnson, Kaufman, Howe and Peltz each had two hits.