Vero Beach, Fla. - The Thunder baseball team opened its seven-game schedule on the Florida coast with a doubleheader sweep of Norwich University on Saturday at the historic Dodgertown complex. Wheaton's offense led the way to a 15-1 victory in the opener and finished off the sweep with an 8-2 win in the nightcap. The victories moves Wheaton's record to 4-0 on the season while Norwich opens its season 0-2.

Wheaton exploded for 15 runs on 19 hits with one error in the opener and tallied eight runs on 11 hits with one error in the nightcap. The Cadets scored one run on five hits with three errors in game one and plated two runs on six hits with no errors in game two.

Michael McCraith moved to 2-0 by allowing one run on on four hits with seven strikeouts in five innings of work. David Solfelt and Christian Gibbs combined for two innings of scoreless relief. In the nightcap, Christian Bolhuis held the Cadets to just two runs, one earned, over six innings of work, allowing six hits and striking out four. Luke Kram worked a perfect inning of relief to close the game.

Evan Ogden's sacrifice fly in the top of the first inning gave Wheaton the early lead after Brett Albaugh and Joel Pierce reached base and advanced with a double steal. Pierce came in to score on a two-out fielding error to put Wheaton ahead 2-0.

Wheaton broke the game open with six runs in the top of the fourth starting with a two-run single by Noah Ritchie. Albaugh added an RBI single later in the inning and was followed by a ground-rule RBI double by Pierce. Both would come in to score on another two-out fielding error to give Wheaton an 8-0 lead. Triples by AJ Dhus, Nick Mailman, and Ogden helped Wheaton post another four runs in the top of the fifth inning. Wheaton would add three more runs in the top of the seventh inning on a two-run double by Graham Core who later scored on a single by Matthias Haggerty to account for Wheaton's 15-1 final tally.

In the nightcap, Albaugh kept his strong day going with a two-run home run to left field in the bottom of the first inning and added another run in the bottom of the second on an RBI triple by Mailman. A four-run fourth inning that started with Haggerty doubling to deep left to score Clay Morrison. Albaugh followed with an RBI single two batters later and came home to score when Pierce followed with a towering home run to left field. Ben Brittain tripled and scored on a wild pitch in the home half of the fifth to complete Wheaton's scoring.

Albaugh recorded five hits on the day, adding five runs scored and five runs driven in. Joel Pierce had four hits with four runs scored and three runs driven in. Evan Ogden and Noah Ritchie each drove in three runs on the day.