PICTURED ABOVE: Freshman Brett Albaugh was 3-for-4 tonight, including his first collegiate home run.

Carol Stream, Ill. - The Wheaton baseball team (12-6, 1-0 CCIW) opened conference play on Friday night in the first matchup of a three-game series against Millikin (10-4, 0-1 CCIW) at Lee Pfund Stadium. Wheaton put together a steady offense and timely pitching to rout the Big Blue 12-2 in seven innings. 

Wheaton has won five consecutive games heading into tomorrow's doubleheader at Pfund Stadium. The twinbill between the Thunder and Big Blue will open at noon on Saturday.

Wheaton topped the Big Blue tonight as the Thunder scored 12 runs, on 11 hits, with no errors and Millikin tallied two runs, on nine hits with three errors. Senior pitcher Josh Arevalo started the game on the mound for the Thunder. Arevalo worked 4-1/3 innings as he scattered eight hits, with two earned runs. He walked one batter and struck out five. John Schmitz (2-1) worked 2-2/3 innings of scoreless relief to pick up the victory. Schmitz (PICTURED LEFT) allowed just one hit, had no walks and struck out two Big Blue batters.

Freshman Brett Albaugh was 3-for-4 with three RBI and two runs scored in the outing. The rookie hit his first collegiate home run in tonight's win. JD Carpenter was 2-for-4 with two RBI and two runs scored. The Thunder had eight players collect at least one hit in the contest.

Millikin struck first with one run in the top of the second inning to take a 1-0 lead. The guests added one run in the top of the third inning to increase the Millikin lead to 2-0. Thunder shortstop John McKenna led off the top of the third inning with a single and scored three batters later on a Millikin error to cut the Big Blue lead to 2-1. 

Wheaton responded with three runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to take a 4-2 lead. Carpenter (PICTURED RIGHT) started Wheaton's scoring in the inning with a RBI-single to left field that drove in Ben Brittain. Kyle Mellinger scored a few batters later when a Josh Kimmel single was followed by a Millikin error for Wheaton's second run of the inning. Carpenter crossed the plate on a Millikin passed ball to give the Thunder a 4-2 lead.

The Thunder added three more runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to increase the hosts' lead to 7-2. All three of Wheaton's runs in the inning came from Albaugh's three run home run over the right field fence at Pfund Stadium.

In the bottom of the sixth inning Wheaton scored three runs for the third consecutive inning to extend the lead to 10-2. Clay Morrison led off the sixth with a triple down the right field line. Morrison scored on the next at bat when Nick Mailman belted a double down the right field line. Mailman advanced to third on a single by Jacob Zeller. Mailman scored on a RBI groundout by Mellinger and Zeller scored on a groundout by Carpenter.

In the bottom of the seventh inning, pinch hitter Evan Ogden drove in a pair of runs with a RBI-double to center field that increased Wheaton's lead to 12-2 and ended the game with the 10-run rule.