Matt Barnes

Tyler Fugate

Behind the pitching of Matt Barnes and Tyler Fugate in Saturday's second game, The College of Wooster forged a split with host Wabash College as the Fighting Scots earned a 5-1 win after falling 5-2 during the opener of the teams' North Coast Athletic Conference doubleheader at Crawfordsville, Ind.

Barnes and Fugate provided Wooster (9-8, 3-1 NCAC), which spent most of the last two weeks in Florida and then made the trek to central Indiana, the lift it needed, combining to hold Wabash (8-13, 1-1 NCAC) to one run on four hits.

Offensively, the Fighting Scots got on the board first during the nightcap with a pair of runs in the fourth. Zac Mathie came up with the key hit, a double that scored Greg Van Horn, who had led off the inning with a hit by pitch. Mathie came around, moving to third on a groundout and then scoring on a wild pitch.

The Little Giants attempted to rally during the bottom of the frame, plating one on a walk, a single, and a one-out single, but they could do no further damage against Barnes.

Using the Van Horn-Mathie combination again, Wooster scored an insurance run in the sixth. With one out, Van Horn reached first on another hit by pitch, then Mathie singled him to third, and he eventually came home on a Michael DeBord RBI groundout.

The Scots tacked on two more tallies during the seventh, with Derek Wyman and Michael Wellstead collecting RBI base knocks.

That was more than enough for Fugate, who came on for Barnes in the fifth, and faced just two batters over the minimum the final three innings for his fourth save of the season. Barnes upped his record to 2-0 after allowing the one run on three hits, while striking out seven, which included the side during the first.

Wooster also held a 2-0 lead in the first game on an unearned run during the second and a Wellstead solo home run in the third.

Wabash standout John Holm knotted the score during the bottom of the third with a two-run dinger, and the fifth inning saw the Little Giants put together a three-run rally with all the damage coming after two outs had been recorded. A walk to Holm was followed by a hit by pitch and back-to-back RBI singles from Chris Deig and Montana Timmons.

Andrew Swart held the Scots' offense in check, as the hosts' ace threw a complete game and yielded just one earned run on three hits. He struck out nine.

Justin McDowell also had a complete-game effort, but took the loss with four earned runs coming on five hits.

Van Horn led Wooster's offense over the two games, reaching four times in seven plate appearances by going 2-for-5 with two hit by pitches. One of his hits was a double and he also stole a base, while Mathie also combined to go 2-for-5, highlighted by that RBI double, and Wellstead was 2-for-6.

Before heading home, the Scots will play another NCAC twinbill Sunday at Ohio Wesleyan University (8-9, 1-1 NCAC), starting at 1 p.m.