No. 2 Scots at 15th-Ranked Otterbein, Then Four-Game Set at Oberlin

Mark Miller

The College of Wooster, which remained at No. 2 in this week’s D3baseball.com/ National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association NCAA Div. III top-25 poll, will play once mid-week before another North Coast Athletic Conference East Division series this weekend. On Tuesday, April 1, Wooster will visit No. 15 Otterbein College (9-3), which has been a regional power the last several seasons, for a 4 p.m. match-up. In 2007, the two split a pair of competitive games, with Otterbein edging the Fighting Scots 5-3 in 12 innings during the regular season and then Wooster knocking the Cardinals out of the NCAA Div. III Mideast Regional via a 3-2 victory. This Saturday and Sunday, April 5-6, the Scots will look to extend their remarkable winning streak against Oberlin College (4-9, 0-0 NCAC East) during back-to-back doubleheaders, beginning at 1 p.m. each day. Wooster has not lost to Oberlin since 1986 – a stretch of 68 games.

Last Week: The Scots went 5-1, including a four-game sweep over the weekend, to improve to 21-2 overall and 8-0 in the NCAC East.

On March 26, Wooster jumped out to a 6-0 lead, behind two home runs by Dan Skulina (Hinckley, Ohio / Walsh Jesuit), and then held off a comeback by Marietta College to prevail 8-7 in the regional rivals’ meeting at Marietta, Ohio. After Skulina’s second homer – a two-run shot – made it a six-run Scot cushion in the top of the sixth, Marietta’s offense came alive with four runs in the bottom of that frame. Wooster answered, plating what turned out to be two important insurance tallies in the seventh when Pat Christensen (Cincinnati, Ohio / Sycamore) and Skulina produced back-to-back RBI singles to double-up the Pioneers, 8-4. Marietta would plate two in the seventh and one in the eighth to pull within 8-7, but the Scots would hang on, thanks to closer Mark Miller (Convoy, Ohio / Crestview), who notched his seventh save. He overcame a one-out, two-base error while striking out two in the ninth. Picking up his third win of the year (3-1) was Matt Barnes (Pittsburgh, Pa. / Langley), as he worked scoreless innings in the third, fourth, and fifth, yielding just three singles. Offensively, Skulina led all players with a 3-for-4, four-RBI outing and Matthew Johnson (Orrville, Ohio / Orrville) also went 3-for-4.

On March 27, Baldwin-Wallace College held Wooster’s typically high-scoring offense to three runs, as the Yellow Jackets upended the Fighting Scots in their home opener by a 7-3 score at an overcast Art Murray Field. Baldwin-Wallace got some early offense, taking a 3-0 lead after three innings. Wooster got on the board in the fifth when Matt Groezinger (Upper Arlington, Ohio / Upper Arlington) hit a hard single to shortstop and scored two outs later on a double by Bubba O’Donnell (Cincinnati, Ohio / St. Xavier). The Yellow Jackets responded, though, with a pair of unearned runs in the sixth and an insurance tally in the eighth for a 6-1 cushion. Sean Karpen (Venetia, Pa. / Peters Twp.) made things interesting via an eighth-inning, two-run homer, but that was it for the Scots’ offense. Groezinger led Wooster at the plate with a 2-for-4 game.

On March 29, Miller closed both ends of a doubleheader, giving him school records in saves for a season with nine as well as for a career with 17, all while helping the Scots to a 2-1, 2-0 sweep of visiting Kenyon College during a match-up between the top-two teams in the NCAC East Division. In the opener, they exchanged an unearned run each during the first two and one-half innings. A leadoff walk to O’Donnell in the bottom of the third proved to be the game-winning run when he scored on Karpen’s two-out single up the middle. Wooster starter Adam Samson (Orrville, Ohio / Orrville) went 6.1 innings, during which he yielded the one unearned run on five hits and a walk while striking out seven, before giving way to Miller. He loaded the bases, but escaped the jam with a weak grounder back to the mound to end it. The story of game two was the pitching of Anthony Trapuzzano (Pittsburgh, Pa. / Canevin Catholic), as the junior right-hander no-hit the Lords through six innings of work before handing it over to Miller. Trapuzzano only gave up three walks, one in the first and two in the fifth. In between, he set down 12 consecutive batters. Miller gave up a leadoff single in the seventh, but induced another game-ending grounder back to the mound to finish it. Trapuzzano, who struck out six, upped his record to 4-0. Offensively on the day, Karpen went 3-for-6 with a run, RBI, and three stolen bases to lead the Scots.