Michael Wellstead

CHILLICOTHE, Ohio – The College of Wooster loaded the bases with two outs in the top of the ninth, but its rally fell short as a Wabash College reliever induced a pop-up to right field to secure a 3-2 victory for the Little Giants in Friday's winners' bracket game of the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament, being held at VA Memorial Stadium.

Wabash (20-20) advances to Saturday's championship round, while Wooster (20-13) will play again later Friday against either Ohio Wesleyan University (21-14) or Wittenberg University (20-17).

The Fighting Scots let a 2-1 lead slip away during the bottom of the seventh when John Pennington led off by reaching via a muffed catch by the first baseman. He moved to second on a wild pitch and John Holm dropped a single into left field for runners on the corners without an out. Montana Timmons then sent a grounder to shortstop and Wooster went for the play at the plate, but the catcher was unable to handle the low throw, and it was a tie game.

Next, Tanner Coggins laid down a sacrifice bunt and the Scots' shaky defense continued as another catch was muffed, this time by the second baseman who was covering first. The ball got away far enough to score Holm from second with the go-ahead run.

Wooster's starting pitcher, and victim of poor fielding, Matt Barnes was pulled in favor of Josh Stidham at that point. With runners on the corner and no outs, Stidham averted further damage via a double play and pop-up to right.

The Scots were unable to generate any offense off of a Michael Wellstead two-out single in the eighth, but after the first two outs of the ninth, they nearly rallied. Zac Mathie doubled into the right field corner, ending Brian Van Duyn's afternoon on the hill for the Little Giants.

Luke Zinsmaster took over and walked both Billy Farrow and Mike Ries on 3-2 pitches to load the bases and bring up Craig Day, who was 6-for-9 at that point in the tourney. Zinsmaster got ahead in the count and induced Day into a high, but shallow fly ball to right for his first save.

Wooster had led 2-0 on single tallies in the third and fourth innings. Wellstead began the third by finding a hole through the left side for a single, followed by an Eddie Reese sacrifice bunt. Two hitters later, Greg Van Horn sent a shot through the left side for an RBI base knock.

The fourth saw the Scots use a similar formula for a run. Day opened it with a leadoff single up the middle, then Michael DeBord moved him over with a sacrifice bunt. Wellstead's single up the middle plated Day for the 2-0 advantage.

Holm started the home half of the fifth with a solo home run to straightaway center on a 3-0 pitch, and that was all of the offense until the seventh inning, when Holm also played a key role.

Barnes was the tough-luck loser (4-2), yielding one earned run on five hits in 6.0 innings of work, while Van Duyn (3-3) nearly threw a complete game. He went 8.2 innings, during which two runs came across on 10 hits. Both starting pitchers struck out six.

Wellstead paced the Wooster at the plate with a 3-for-3 performance and he walked in his other appearance, while Holm also went 3-for-3 with a walk for Wabash.