Norton, Mass. - The Wheaton College baseball team improved to 11-0 when scoring eight or more runs on Thursday afternoon, as the Lyons turned back Clark University, 16-8 in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) action at Sidell Stadium.

Extending its winning streak to six games while remaining perfect in April, Wheaton, which is receiving votes in a pair of national polls and the regional rankings, improved to 14-5 overall while maintaining sole possession of first place in the league at 7-1. The Cougars fell to 11-10 and 3-4.

Trailing 3-0 entering the bottom of the third, the hosts strung together three runs over the next two frames to knot the score. Clark responded with a pair of runs in the top of the fifth before the Lyons took the lead for good thanks to their five-run home half and eight-run sixth.

Wheaton plated its 16 runs on 11 hits, nine walks and three hit batsmen, with junior Tad Skelley leading the way in going a perfect 3-for-3 with four RBI, a double and a run. Freshman Sean Ryan drilled a grand slam and scored twice, while junior Sean Munley had two hits and two RBI.

Senior closer Jon Shepard picked up his first win of the season, yielding two runs on four hits with two strikeouts over 3.1 innings after entering the game in the third. Freshman Justin Santiago went 2.1 frames during his first collegiate start. He surrendered three runs and five hits while fanning two and walking three.

Freshman Andrew LeBlanc (Farmington, Conn.) was saddled with his second loss against Wheaton in as many weeks, giving up eight runs, seven earned, on six hits with four strikeouts and three walks in 4.2 innings. Offensively, Clark finished with 14 hits, including three each from seniors Ronald Bathrick (North Haven, Conn.), Stephen DeMartino (East Haven, Conn.) and Phillip DiMarco (Bellingham, Mass.).

Santiago ran into trouble early, as the Cougars loaded the bases with nobody out in the first, but he escaped the inning relatively unscathed with two fly balls and a strikeout, limiting the damage to a single run. Santiago was chased in the third inning after Clark stretched its lead to 3-0 on three singles and a pair of walks. With one down, Shepard closed the door with an inning-ending double play on his second pitch.

Paul Malaguti's two-out, third-inning double put Wheaton on the scoreboard, and Skelley's two-out two-bagger off the right field fence the next inning knotted the score at three. The visitors pushed two runs across with two down in the fifth before the Blue and White plated five two-out runs in the home half to take the lead for good. Raad's two-run single up the middle gave the Lyons a 6-5 edge.

After scoring five runs on three hits in the fifth, Wheaton brought around eight runs on just three hits the following inning, including Ryan's grand slam that sailed over the left center field fence. The Lyons drew six walks during the frame while sending 11 batters to the plate.

The Cougars return the diamond on Saturday when they host Springfield for an 11 a.m. doubleheader.