Top-10 Ranked Scots at Kent State, Then Home-and-Home With Denison

Mark Miller

The College of Wooster, which slipped slightly to No. 3 and No. 6 in the latest D3baseball.com and American Baseball Coaches Association NCAA Div. III top-25 rankings, respectively, has three games scheduled for the week. On Tuesday, April 8, Wooster will take on NCAA Div. I Kent State University (11-15) in what has become an annual match-up between the Div. III and Mid-American Conference powers. It will mark the fifth meeting this decade, with the Fighting Scots having won 3-2 last spring and 5-4 in 2003 and the Golden Flashes prevailing 12-1 in 2006 and 12-0 in 2004. Opening pitch at Schoonover Stadium is set for 4 p.m. This weekend, Saturday and Sunday, April 12-13, Wooster will play a home-and-home series with Denison University (17-8). One nine-inning game is scheduled at Denison Saturday at 5 p.m., followed by another in Wooster on Sunday at 1 p.m. The Big Red won their regular season match-up 6-5 last year, but the Scots came back to knock them out of the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament with a 2-1, 8-2 sweep in the teams’ semifinal series.

Last Week: Wooster won four of five games, moving its record to 25-3 overall and 11-1 in NCAC East Division play.

On April 3, the Scots scored twice in the eighth inning to break a 5-5 tie and closer Mark Miller (Convoy, Ohio / Crestview) overcame some trouble during the bottom of the ninth to notch his 10th save, as Wooster held off Otterbein College 7-6 in a battle of nationally-ranked teams at Westerville, Ohio. The Scots had entered the game ranked No. 2 and Otterbein at No. 15. Wooster loaded the bases during the eighth, and with two outs, Sean Karpen (Venetia, Pa. / Peters Twp.) beat out an infield hit, scoring Shane Swearingen (Hilliard, Ohio / Bishop Watterson). Pinch hitter Stu Beath (St. Louis, Mo. / Avon Old Farms – Conn.) followed with a walk, which sent home Matthew Pierce (Oklahoma City, Okla. / Casady School), who had smacked a double down the right field line earlier in the inning. John Warren (New Castle, Pa. / Union Area) set down the Cardinals 1-2-3 during their at bat in the eighth, and after an uneventful top of the ninth, Miller yielded a two-out, run-scoring single before stranding runners on the corners by inducing a game-ending groundout to the first baseman. Offensively, Pierce had his best game as a Scot, going 4-for-5, and Karpen had three hits and three RBI in five trips to the plate. Dan Skulina (Hinckley, Ohio / Walsh Jesuit) went 2-for-3 with a fourth-inning solo home run and two walks.

On April 5, Wooster smacked five homers, including two by Pat Christensen (Cincinnati, Ohio / Sycamore), during a 12-3, 9-2 sweep of divisional foe Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. Leading 3-0 through three innings of the first game, the Scots then broke it open via a three-run homer off the bat of Bubba O’Donnell (Cincinnati, Ohio / St. Xavier) in the fourth and a four-run fifth inning. During the latter frame, Karpen singled and scored on a Skulina base knock, and then back-to-back hit by pitches gave Wooster another tally. Later, Sankal singled in two more for a 10-0 lead. While the Scots’ offense was pounding out runs, Adam Samson (Orrville, Ohio / Orrville) shut down the Yeomen. Wooster’s ace allowed just two hits and two walks in five scoreless innings while striking out eight, as he improved to 4-0. The Scots wasted little time in getting out to a big early lead during the nightcap. With one out, Pierce hit a solo home run to left-center. After a second out, Oberlin’s starter went on to walk five consecutive batters to make it a 3-0 game. Wooster added three more in the second inning. Karpen had a one-out double to send home Sankal and then Christensen belted the first of his two homers down the left field line. The Yeomen pulled within 6-1 in the third, but the Scots put it out of reach via two runs in the fifth and one in the sixth, Christensen homering again in the latter. Wooster used four pitchers en route to the 9-2 triumph, with Tanner Hall (Oil City, Pa. / Oil City) picking up the win (3-0). He set down every batter he faced during the fourth and fifth with three strikeouts. Overall, Sankal was 4-for-9 with three RBI and Karpen went 4-for-7, including his ninth and 10th doubles, with two RBI.

On April 6, a couple of remarkable streaks came to a close during the second game of Oberlin’s and Wooster’s doubleheader, as the former upset the Scots 4-2, marking the first time Oberlin has beaten Wooster on the diamond since the 1986 season – a stretch of 71 games. The Scots had triumphed 8-1 in the opener. The result of the nightcap also halted Wooster’s 36-game NCAC divisional winning streak, a conference record, as the Scots had not lost such a contest since April 1, 2006, when Allegheny College edged them 3-2. Wooster had an easy time with the Yeomen in the opener, behind the pitching of Anthony Trapuzzano (Pittsburgh, Pa. / Canevin Catholic). The junior right-hander struck out a career-high 11 while pitching a complete game, in which he yielded just the one run on three hits and a pair of walks. Sankal set the tone at the plate, leading off the game with a home run. The Scots added another later in the first and then plated three runs in the third, taking a 5-0 lead. Pierce and Karpen had back-to-back doubles that frame, followed by Christensen’s third home run of the weekend. Wooster would go on to the seven-run win, as Trapuzzano extended his perfect record to 7-0 while lowering his ERA to 2.41. In the second game, Pierce cracked a two-run homer in the top of the third to give the Scots a 2-1 lead, but that would be all of the offense they would be able to generate. Oberlin’s offense countered with a run in the third to tie it and then two in the fourth for the 4-2 lead. Wooster’s hitters only managed two singles over the final three innings. On the day, Sankal, Matt Groezinger (Upper Arlington, Ohio / Upper Arlington), and Matthew Johnson (Orrville, Ohio / Orrville) led all players, each with three hits. Sankal combined to go 3-for-8 with an RBI, Groezinger was 3-for-6 with one RBI, and Johnson went 3-for-7 with an RBI. Also noteworthy, another streak came to an end, as Karpen went hitless (0-for-3) during the nightcap, putting a stop to his 22-game hitting streak – the eighth-longest in school history.