Lackner Reaches Major Milestone, All Nine Starters Score at Least Once For No. 7 Wooster in 19-3 Win Over Denison

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Chandler Dippman
Jamie Lackner

Senior Jamie Lackner scored his 150th career run to join an exclusive club as The College of Wooster baseball team, up a spot to seventh in this week's D3baseball.com/National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Top 25, saw all nine of its starters score at least once as the offense continued to roll during a 19-3 win over Denison University in a non-conference contest on Wednesday night at the Big Red Baseball Field in Granville, Ohio.

Lacker, who made it 13-3 in the fifth inning when he touched home after sophomore Chandler Dippman was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, joined W Association Hall of Famers Jake Frank and Rick Sforzo as the only players in the Fighting Scots' tradition-rich history to log at least 200 hits, score 150 runs, drive in 150 runs, and walk 100 times.

Wooster (22-5) and Denison (19-7) were competitive early on, and the Big Red led 3-2 after two innings of play prior to the Scots breaking it wide open with a nine-run third inning. Dippman knocked in the go-ahead run with a one-out two-run single through the right side that made it 4-3, and Wooster really clicked from there as the next three hitters contributed RBI base knocks in a two-run two-bagger down the left field line by first-year Nick Strausbaugh, an opposite-field single by junior Jake Fling, and a triple off the bat of sophomore Michael Wielansky.

Speaking of Wielansky, the sophomore staked Wooster to an early 1-0 lead when he belted a 3-2 pitch out to left field for his fifth round-tripper of the year with two outs in the top of the first inning. Then, in the seventh, Wielansky laced a single into center field, and finished a double shy of the cycle, but did reach base two additional times via a hit by pitch and walk.

After the third frame, Wooster's bats kept pounding out hits as the Scots plated a quartet of runs in the fifth and seventh innings.

In the fifth, Strausbaugh kept the inning rolling after Dippman's hit-by-pitch plated Lackner with a two-run single into left field. Earlier in the inning, sophomore Garrett Crum lifted a sacrifice fly out to right field to knock in Wielansky, who led off the inning after getting hit for the 10th time this season.

Two innings later, Wooster turned the order over for the sixth time in the game, but that wasn't before Dippman, Wooster's nine hitter, poked a RBI single into right field prior to Strausbaugh driving in a run for the third at bat in the game. Later in the inning, Wielansky's single plated a run, as did a single by Lackner.

Senior Michael Houdek (5-2) picked up the win with five innings of two-hit relief out of the bullpen. The left-hander added five strikeouts in support of sophomore Brian Murray, who allowed three runs on five hits in four innings of work.

Notable, Wooster logged a season high in runs and hits (21), and has now reached double figures in runs in six straight games, a first for the program since a six-game stretch between April 18-22, 2015.

Individually, Dippman and Strausbaugh provided a nice combination on the night as the Scots' nine and one hitters combined to go 6-for-9 with 11 RBI and two doubles. In fact, six Scots had three-hit nights with Lackner, senior Ryan Ostendorf, junior Drew Tornow, and Wielansky joining Dippman and Strausbaugh in that department, while Fling tied the program's single-game record with seven at bats.

Other notable offensive nuggets included three runs each by Ostendorf, sophomore Jacob Stuursma, Tornow, and three runs and three RBI by Wielansky.

Denison was led by Nick Pettigrew's two RBI and Liam McKeough's 2 1/3 innings of scoreless relief that featured five strikeouts.

Next, Wooster plays host to Marietta College (14-11) at 4 p.m. on Thursday.