WOOSTER, Ohio – The College of Wooster pounded out a season-high 23 hits, including five doubles and four home runs, and scored in every inning but one, as the No. 25 ranked Fighting Scots routed long-time NCAA Div. III Mideast Region rival Marietta College by a final count of 19-8 during a non-league game Wednesday afternoon at Art Murray Field.
It marked Wooster's second-largest margin of victory against Marietta in the teams' all-time series, as they typically play very close games while battling for regional supremacy.
Joey Gilmore, celebrating his 21st birthday, supplied three of the extra-base hits, with his biggest being a two-out, three-run homer to left field that broke a 6-6 tie in the bottom of the fifth.
Leading 9-6, Wooster (15-2) went to its top arms, as Zach Woullard, Michael Houdek, Nanak Saran, and Michael Whitaker each pitched an inning to complete the win, with Marietta's (11-8) only remaining offense coming with two outs in the top of the ninth.
By then, the Scots had tacked on 10 more runs for a 19-6 cushion.
The Scots followed Gilmore's blast by putting up another three-spot during the sixth inning, as Drew Tornow, Kevin Hagen, and Kenny Reckart all singled, with Hagen's plating Tornow, and Jake Fling drove in two via a double that the right fielder couldn't track down. That pushed the lead to 12-6.
In the seventh, Jamie Lackner sent a towering blast to left-center for a two-run home run and he highlighted Wooster's five-run eighth inning by delivering a . Lackner already has seven home runs on the young season, with five coming during the Scots' lone two home games.
Earning his first collegiate win on the mound was junior Dylan McCreary. With Wooster trailing 6-5 and no outs in the top of the third, the right-hander kept the Pioneers off balance with his side-arm delivery. He held them hitless for 3.0 scoreless innings, issuing just one walk along the way.
Then, Woullard, Houdek, and Saran combined to face just one batter over the minimum during the sixth, seventh, and eighth innings, as the Scots' bats put the game away.
Early on, Wooster's offense was keyed by Frank Vance, who pulled a two-run homer over the right-field fence in the first and went the opposite way with a two-run double down the left-field line in the second.
Fling (5-for-5, three RBI), Gilmore (3-for-5, four RBI), Vance (4-for-6, five RBI), and Lackner (2-for-4, six RBI) all had big games at the top of the order, and Reckart added three hits (3-for-5) from the No. 9 spot.
For the Pioneers, Chris Winpigler went 3-for-4 with a homer and two RBI.
The Scots return to North Coast Athletic Conference East Division play this weekend, as they'll be at Kenyon College (13-7, 3-1 NCAC East) for a four-game series on Saturday and Easter Sunday.