Fort Pierce, Fla. - The Thunder offense made plenty of noise of Tuesday afternoon as the Wheaton baseball team improved to 7-0 with victories over Western Connecticut State and Cairn. Wheaton opened the day with a 24-13 victory over Western Connecticut State before topping Cairn University 8-3 in the nightcap. Wheaton will continue its schedule with a doubleheader against Washington College (Md.) on Friday and a Saturday morning game against Mount Saint Vincent.

Wheaton posted a crooked number in all six of the innings they scored against Western Connecticut State, scoring their 24 runs on 26 hits. David Solfelt proved to be the anchor on the mound for the Thunder as the freshman halted the Colonials momentum and allowed the Thunder offense to overcome a large early deficit. Solfelt pitched 5.1 innings of relief, scattering six hits and allowing two runs, one earned, while picking up his first collegiate victory.

After taking a 4-1 lead in the bottom of the first inning, the Colonials took advantage of a sloppy inning by the Thunder to push across nine runs on just three hits while capitalizing on two Thunder errors, ending the inning with a 10-4 lead. While Solfelt held down the WestConn offense, the Thunder chipped away at the lead, scoring three runs in the bottom of the fourth inning on Caleb Grotelueschen's second RBI double of the game, a sacrifice fly by Matthias Haggerty, and an RBI single by Joel Pierce.

Five runs in the bottom of the fifth inning gave Wheaton the lead accented by a no doubt home run off the bat of Pierce that pushed the Thunder ahead 11-10. The Thunder offense continued to roll as the Orange and Blue plated three runs in the sixth and seventh innings before putting the game away with six runs in the bottom of the eighth inning.

Joel Pierce finished the game with five hits including a double and a home run while driving in six runs and scoring three runs. Caleb Grotelueschen drove in four runs on a trio of RBI doubles with four runs scored. Matthias Haggerty had a three-hit game while scoring three runs and driving in three. Nick Mailman scored four runs on two hits with four walks.

In the nightcap, Wheaton took a quick lead when Pierce reached on an error and scored on Evan Ogden's RBI double. Ogden added an RBI single in the top of the third inning, plating Noah Ritchie. Brittain followed with a sacrifice fly scoring Mailman to make it 3-0. Graham Core led off the Thunder fourth with a triple before Clay Morrison was hit by a pitch and stole second base. Both runners came in to score two batters later on Ritchie's RBI triple putting Wheaton ahead 5-0. Mailman followed with a safety squeeze bunt to plate the run and make it 6-0. Ritchie pushed Wheaton's lead to 7-0 in the bottom of the sixth inning when his groundout brought home pinch runner Luke Roudabush.

While the Thunder raced to the 7-0 lead, freshmen Kevin Champlin blanketed the Highlander offense, allowing a hit batsmen in the bottom of the first inning but recovering to sit down 13 consecutive hitters. Two walks and a hit batsman in the bottom of the sixth inning, pushed Champlin from the game with two outs before a single to left gave Cairn their first runs of the game as well as their first hit. Champlin's line finished with two runs allowed while not allowing a hit and striking out eight hitters.

Cairn pushed across another run in the bottom of the seventh run, but Wheaton answered in the top of the eighth when Core reached on an error and scored on Ritchie's single. Caleb Selk guided Wheaton through the eighth inning and Jacob Garrity pitched a scoreless ninth for the Thunder to close out the 8-3 win.

Noah Ritchie paced Wheaton's offense with three hits and four runs driven in and two runs scored. Evan Ogden added three hits with two runs driven in and Graham Core scord two runs.