The red-hot, sixth-ranked College of Wooster baseball team matched the program's 32-year-old school records for runs and hits with 34 and 31 respectively, and two other single-game program benchmarks were set during the second game of the Fighting Scots' doubleheader sweep over Ohio Wesleyan University on Sunday at Littick Field in Delaware, Ohio. Wooster scored the final seven runs to take game one 7-2, and rode that momentum to a 34-1 win in the nightcap.
Sophomore Ryan Farrell laced a single to center field in the top of the seventh inning to plate classmate Dan Gail for Wooster's 34th run in game two. Noteworthy, the Scots reached the milestone three days shy of when the 1986 team scored 34 times in a 34-10 win over Heidelberg University. In the eighth inning, first-year Noah Clement drilled a two-out double to center field for the Scots' 31st hit of the game, a total tied with that 1986 game against Heidelberg for the most in program history.
Prior to Farrell's RBI base knock, first-year Zach Schuch drew a bases-load walk, and Schuch's RBI marked the Scots' 33rd of the game, one better than the 32 Wooster had against Kenyon College on March 29, 1986. In all, 14 Scots contributed to the program-record 34 RBI, including junior Garrett Crum, who had a career-high seven as part of a 4-for-5 game that also saw the first baseman score three times and hit a three-run homer.
In the ninth inning, Schuch's at bat officially broke another program record, as he was the 58th of Wooster's 59 at bats in the game. Wooster's 59 at bats two-upped the old program record of 57 set against Muskingum University in 1984 and matched in the Scots' win over the University of Mount Union in 2009. One batter prior to Schuch, sophomore Harry Witwer-Dukes recorded his eighth at bat, and etched his name into the pole position on the individual program single-game leaderboard.
With the sweep, Wooster upped its winning streak to 10 games, and worth noting, it's the 50th combined winning streak of at least 10 games in length between the legendary coaching careers of men's basketball head coach Steve Moore (26) and baseball skipper Tim Pettorini (24).
Wooster patiently worked its way to a 4-0 lead in the nightcap, as the Scots drew four walks in the top of the first inning. Crum made it a 2-0 contest with a two-run single, and sophomore Nick Strausbaugh roped a two-run double to center field to bring around the final two runs of the inning.
The Scots had a different mentality in the second inning as Wooster's hitters were swinging early in the count. The first seven hitters of the inning logged base hits, with Crum's three-run mash leading the way during the six-run frame that made it 10-0.
Already ahead 14-0 entering the fourth inning, Wooster plated 10 runs in the frame. Junior Michael Wielansky put the exclamation point on the inning with a three-run home run, which marked the shortstop's first of the season.
Later in the game, Wooster scored its final nine runs in the seventh inning after scoring one in the fifth.
Although not the same 14 in each statistical category, 14 Scots logged a hit and 14 scored at least once during the second game of the twin bill. Three-hit games were turned in by sophomore Dan Harwood, Strausbaugh, senior Drew Tornow, Wielansky, and Witwer-Dukes, who combined to complement Crum's monster game with 15 runs and 13 RBI.
Noteworthy, Wooster's 34 runs are tied for the most in a single game in Div. III this spring.
Junior Chandler Dippman (3-0) scattered five hits in five shutouts innings before turning it over to a quartet of relievers.
In the day's opener, Harwood ignited Wooster with his team-leading eighth home run that made it a 2-2 game in the top of the sixth inning.
Wooster's offense, which only had two hits prior to Harwood's blast, picked up its ace, Nanak Saran, from there, starting with a four-run seventh inning. Tornow led off the frame with the go-ahead home run, and Strausbaugh and Dippman followed with back-to-back singles. Then, senior Jake Fling legged out his 13th career triple, and made it a 5-2 game in the process. Fling scored on junior Jacob Stuursma's RBI single.
Wooster added a run in the eighth inning on a RBI infield single by Strausbaugh.
Strausbaugh and Tornow combined for six of the Scots' 10 hits during Sunday's opener.
Saran, who worked around traffic on the basepaths all game one, kept his team within striking distance until the offense started to click with Harwood's blast. The right-hander improved to 4-1 with seven innings of two-run, six-strikeout work.
Next, Wooster takes on Thiel College (8-12) in a road non-conference game at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, April 10.