PICTURED ABOVE: Kyle Trivits had two hits and drove in two runs in Wheaton's 9-5 win over Aurora on Monday.

Tucson, Ariz. - The Thunder baseball team got back to its winning ways by defeating Aurora University 9-5 at the Tucson Invitational. With the victory Wheaton moves to 4-3 on the season including 3-1 on its current trip. Aurora falls to 3-4. The Thunder will be off until Friday when Wheaton faces Saint John's (Minn.) in a doubleheader at 3:30 PM (MST).

The Thunder tallied nine runs on a season-high 16 hits. Aurora was held to five runs on nine hits with one error. Josh Arevanlo earned the win for Wheaton allowing five runs in 8.1 innings of work. Arevalo scattered nine hits and shut down 10 straight Aurora hitters through the middle innings of the game. Tom Bishop closed the game for Wheaton by recording the last two outs.

After leaving the bases loaded in the bottom of the first inning, Wheaton got on the board in the bottom of the second inning when Josh Kimmel singled, stole second and scored on a Kyle Trivits RBI single. The Spartans quickly answered in the top of the third inning to knot the score at 1-1.

Wheaton blew the game open with a four-run fourth inning that started with John McKenna's leadoff double. Trivits earned his second RBI with a single to right. Trivits and Ben Brittain would score on Kyle Mellinger's two-run double that was followed by an Andrew Laucella double to make it 5-1. Three runs in the bottom of the sixth pushed the lead to 8-1 on RBIs by Jacob Zeller, Mellinger and Laucella. Kimmel scored on Nick Mailman's single in the bottom of the seventh inning for Wheaton's ninth and final run. Aurora would add four runs in the top of the ninth inning to close the final gap to 9-5.

All nine Wheaton starters recorded a hit in the game with eight of the nine having multiple hits. Kyle Mellinger drove in three runs with Trivits and Laucella each recording two RBI.

Wheaton will be back in action on Friday with a 3:30 PM (MST) doubleheader against Saint John's (Minn.).