PICTURED ABOVE: Johnny Peltz connected on two doubles in Wheaton's 9-8 victory on Tuesday morning.

Tucson, Ariz. - The Thunder baseball team got back in the win column on Tuesday, holding off a late rally to defeat North Central University (Minn.) 9-8 at the Tucson Invitational. Wheaton evens its record at 3-3 with the win while the Rams fall to 0-3 overall. Wheaton will be off until Friday when the Thunder face Bethany Lutheran College in a doubleheader starting at 3 pm (MST).

Wheaton pushed across nine runs on 16 hits with five defensive errors. North Central scored its eight runs on nine hits with four errors. Sam Arnold made his collegiate debut on the mound for the Thunder, surrendering two runs in 4.1 innings of work and striking out four. Caleb Selk earned the win for the Thunder, allowing one run in 1.2 innings of relief work. Nick Johnson earned his first save of the season, allowing three runs, one earned, and striking out three in 2.2 innings of work.

Wheaton's offense pushed the Thunder out to a quick lead on Tuesday morning with Nick Mailman starting the game off with a single and coming around to score on Ben Brittain's RBI groundout. After Arnold set the Rams down in order in the bottom of the first inning, Wheaton's offense kicked into gear to open the game up.

Seth Meyer and Joel Pierce started the inning with consecutive singles before Meyer came around to score on Mailman's single through the right side. Welch followed with an RBI single plating Pierce and moving Mailman around to third. After Welch stole second, Brittain plated both runners with a single to right to put Wheaton ahead 5-0.

Wheaton added another two runs in the top of the third inning when Clay Morrison came around to score on a defensive miscue by the Rams on Jacob Garrity's single. Graham Core followed with a ground out to shortstop, plating Pierce with the second run of the inning.

North Central cut into the Thunder lead, scoring a run in the bottom of the fourth and pushing another run across in the bottom of the fifth. The Rams threatened to further close the gap but Caleb Selk came on in relief of Arnold to strike out consecutive batters to finish the inning and strand the bases loaded.

Johnny Peltz answered the North Central runs with a two-run double down the left field line in the top of the sixth inning to give Wheaton a 9-2 lead. North Central continued to chip away at the Thunder lead, plating a run in the bottom of the sixth and two more in the bottom of the seventh inning. Nick Johnson prevented further Rams damage in the seventh, coming on in relief of Luke Kram to record consecutive strikeouts and strand the bases loaded.

Trailing 9-5 entering the bottom of the ninth inning, the Rams rallied to quickly score a pair of runs on two Thunder errors. A third Wheaton error in the inning allowed the Rams to push across another run and put the tying and winning runs on base with one out. Johnson was able to extinguish the rally by inducing a ground ball to Core who stepped on third and fired across to Morrison for a game-ending double play.

All nine Thunder starters recorded at least one hit with five players collecting multiple hits. Peltz led the offense with two doubles. Nick Mailman led Wheaton on the bases, stealing three bases. Jesse Welch stole two bases with Ben Brittain and Peltz also adding a stolen base.