Moline, Ill. - The big inning proved to be costly for the Thunder baseball team on Monday afternoon. After its doubleheader at Augustana was pushed from Saturday to Monday due to rain, the Thunder dropped both games of the double dip by scores of 9-4 and 17-3, falling to 6-14 on the year and 4-10 in the CCIW. The 24th-ranked Vikings finished the day with a record of 17-3 and 9-3 and in the CCIW. Wheaton will hit the road against on Wednesday afternoon for a doubleheader at Illinois Wesleyan beginning at 1 pm.

Wheaton jumped out to an early lead to start the day to back a dominant start by Jacob Garrity who struck out seven over three shutout innings to start the day. After the Thunder left runners on second and third in the second inning, the guests broke through in the third when Matthias Haggerty reached on an error to start the inning and came around to score on a Ben Weaver sacrifice fly.

In the top of the fourth, Graham Core's aggressive baserunning led to another run when he led off the inning with a walk, advanced to second on a balk, stole third and then came in to score when the catcher's throw sailed into left field. Weaver pushed Wheaton's lead to 3-0 later in the inning by inducing a bases loaded to walk, but Wheaton would strand the bases loaded and Augustana would capitalize on the momentum. Three Thunder errors opened the flood gates in the bottom of the fourth inning leading to seven unearned Viking runs and chasing Garrity after just 3.2 innings despite nine strikeouts.

A run in the top of the fifth inning brought the Thunder back to within 7-4 when Tyler Weiner drove in Core on a fielder's choice. However, the Vikings would pull away with another unearned run in the bottom of the fifth and an additional insurance run in the sixth for a 9-4 game one victory.

An eight-run third inning by the Vikings broke open a scoreless game two and the hosts added three more runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. Wheaton got on the board with three runs in the top of the fifth inning starting with a solo home run by Mason Packwood. Weiner later drove in Core with a groundout and Haggerty added the final run with an RBI double plating Harrison Stanton. Leading 11-3, Augustana put up five runs in the bottom of the innng and added one more for the 17-3 victory. Packwood posted the lone multi-hit game of the day with two hits in the nightcap including his first collegiate home run.