CRAWFORDSVILLE, Indiana – After three consecutive splits to open North Coast Athletic Conference play, The College of Wooster baseball team scored a much-needed sweep on Saturday at Wabash College. The Fighting Scots won the opener 4-3 and then took the nightcap 12-7.
Wooster (16-8, 5-3 NCAC) turned to sophomore Corey Knauf (save one) to get the Scots over the finish line in game one. The right-hander stranded the tying run in scoring position, as senior right fielder Ben Hines tracked down a Liam Patton fly ball near the line for the final out of the game. Wooster caught a huge break a batter prior, as an infield fly was called when AJ Reid skied a ball on the infield that did not wind up getting caught. However, since the infield fly was declared, the out stood.
Senior Mitchell Reardon was on point at the onset, retiring nine of the first 10 Little Giants he faced. The left-hander improved to 3-4 after allowing one run on five hits in seven innings of work. Wabash's (14-11, 0-8 NCAC) Dylan Scheid (3-3) was equally up to the task in the early going, but Wooster finally got to the Little Giants' lefty in the fourth. Junior third baseman Dean Brown's opposite-field double down the line plated the first run of the game
Wooster reclaimed the lead in Saturday's opener in the sixth. Sophomore second baseman Eli Westrick's single started things, and he later scored on a Little Giant passed ball. Wooster tacked on two runs in the seventh, and Westrick was part of the production again with an opposite-field RBI single. Prior to that knock, junior first baseman Dane Camphausen lifted a sacrifice fly out to center field.
Camphausen's two-run single tied Saturday's nightcap at two in the third inning, then senior catcher Michael Thomas put the Scots ahead for good for the second time this week in the fourth via a single to center. Next, Hines and senior shortstop Tyler Chumita laced back-to-back RBI singles, upping Wooster's lead to 5-2 in the process.
Later, more crooked numbers aligned with the Scots, including in the seventh, when Wooster broke the game wide open at 12-3. Senior center fielder Ben Gbur's two-run double marked the third straight Wooster hit in the seventh, and followed on the heels of senior left fielder Dominic Stilliana and Thomas reaching safely. Later in the seventh, Brown deposited an RBI single into center field and then sophomore second baseman Grant Mitchell followed with a RBI single to left.
Westrick ran his record to 3-0 after allowing three runs (two earned) on six hits in five innings. Junior Ryan Sullivan was among the three relief pitchers who followed, and he was the lone one to work a scoreless inning.
Grant Stratton (0-1) took the game-two loss for Wabash after allowing five runs on nine hits in four innings.
Brown went 5-for-8 with two RBI on the day, while Gbur added four hits, four runs scored, and two RBI. Thomas delivered a big game two, going 3-for-5 with four runs scored and an RBI.
Evan Neukam, AJ Reid, and Austin Simmers had three hits each for Wabash on the day.
Next, Wooster hosts Oberlin College (6-17, 2-6 NCAC) on Tuesday, April 19. First pitch from Art Murray Field is set for noon.