GAME STATS Tucson, Ariz.- The Wheaton Thunder baseball team opened its annual spring trip with a 9-8 victory over Concordia University (Neb.) on Saturday night in Tucson, Arizona. Wheaton opened up an early 8-2 lead and managed to withstand a late charge by the Bulldogs to earn the victory. With the win, Wheaton evened its record to 2-2 on the 2014 season while dropping the Bulldogs to 4-10.

With the score tied through three innings, Wheaton broke through with a big inning to take the first and only lead of the game. Taylor Howe broke the scoreless tie with a squeeze bunt that scored Kyle Mellinger from third base. Jake Portugal and Josh Kimmel followed with an RBI double and an RBI single before Matt Schappell reached on an error that brought home Wheaton's fourth run of the inning.

After the Bulldogs answered with two runs in the bottom of the fourth, Wheaton responded by quickly putting up another four runs in the top of the fifth inning. Trey Martin's RBI double plated Justin Swider from first base to make it 5-2. Martin scored on John Jensen-Johnson's single. Howe drove home a run with a single and Portugal made it 8-2 with an RBI groundout.

Concordia chipped away at the Wheaton lead with three runs in the top of the sixth inning and another run in the bottom of the seventh to cut the Thunder lead to 8-6. Wheaton added an insurance run in the top of the ninth inning when Howe reached on an error that allowed Mellinger (PICTURED RIGHT) to score. The Bulldogs rallied with two runs in the home half of the ninth inning and had the tying run in scoring position when Howe picked off the potential winning run at first base to end the game.

Josh Arevalo earned the win with five and a third innings of work. Andrew Bayer earned his first save of the season with one and a third innings of work.

Wheaton will continue its spring trip with a doubleheader on Monday morning against Wesleyan University and Bethany Lutheran College starting at 9 AM PST.

Note Worthy: The game was delayed for 20 minutes and moved to an adjacent field after the sprinkler system interrupted the game in the top of the sixth inning...the game took four hours and 15 minutes to complete.