WOOSTER, Ohio – The College of Wooster, up to second in the latest D3baseball.com/National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Top-25 Poll, now has the longest winning streak since the 2007 team opened the season with a school-record 27 straight wins, as the Fighting Scots dispatched Oberlin College 17-4 and 18-2, and upped its current run to 17 straight wins on Wednesday afternoon at Art Murray Field.
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| Wooster junior Michael Wielansky scored seven runs and had two triples in the doubleheader sweep. He's now 10th all-time in program history in runs (175), and his 16 three-baggers are two better than senior teammate Jake Fling's 14 for the most at the College. |
Junior Michael Wielansky motored around the bases for a pair of triples on the day to move two ahead of senior teammate Jake Fling for the most in program history at 16. The shortstop's triple in game one came during the Scots' (22-3, 10-0 North Coast Athletic Conference) four-run fourth inning, a frame in which Wooster took the lead for good. Sophomore Dan Harwood drove Wielansky in with a single, and Harwood later scored the game-tying run on an errant Oberlin (9-19, 2-8 NCAC) throw that went out of play. Later in the inning, sophomore Dan Gail made it a 6-4 contest with a two-run double down the left field line.
Noteworthy, Wielansky's run in the fourth inning moved the junior sensation into the program's top-10 list.
Up 7-4 entering the sixth inning, thanks to a fifth-inning muffed throw, Wooster's collective keen eyes the plate led to a six-run explosion. Junior Jacob Stuursma and Fling knocked in the first two runs of the inning with bases-loaded walks, and Wielansky pushed the lead out to 10-4 with a RBI fielder's choice. Next, Harwood blasted a three-run home run out to right field to up the ante to 13-4.
Harwood wasn't done quite yet, as he launched a second three-run homer out to right-center in the seven inning and finished game one 3-for-5 with seven RBI and three runs scored. For the day, the designated hitter went 7-for-9 with 10 RBI, six runs, the two homers, and a double.
Wooster went yard again in the eighth inning, thanks to Stuursma's round-tripper staying just inside the left-field foul pole as it exited Art Murray Field.
Gail, Stuursma, and senior Drew Tornow backed Harwood up with two RBI each.
Defensively, Wooster turned a nifty 9-2-4-2 twin killer to get out of the top of the fourth inning.
Senior Alec Hammond improved to 5-0 with six innings of work, five of which were scoreless frames.
Oberlin's Milo Sklar clubbed a two-run homer during the Yeomen's four-run third inning.
In the nightcap, Wooster scored in five of its eight trips to the plate, starting in the first inning when Fling placed two Scots in scoring position with a double. Wielansky knocked in the game's first run with a RBI groundout, and Harwood followed with an opposite-field single.
An inning later, junior Harrison Walls gave the Scots their marching orders with a leadoff double, and by inning's end, it was a 6-1 game. Wooster's three-through-five hitters – Wielansky, Harwood, and Crum – all had RBI base knocks in the frame.
In the fourth inning, Wielansky blasted a one-out triple into the right-field corner, and Crum added a RBI base knock to make it 7-2. Noteworthy, Crum's RBI was the 100th of his standout career.
Wooster opened the floodgates with four runs in the fifth inning that made it an 11-2 contest. Sophomore Harry Witwer-Dukes sped home on a passed ball for the first run of the frame. Similar to the second inning, the Scots' three-through-five batters drove in the final three runs of the frame.
The Scots kept scoring at will in the seventh inning as eight straight Wooster batters reached safely at one point. Wielansky's two-run double and Tornow's two-run single accounted for the biggest base knocks of the frame.
For the game, Wielansky went 4-for-5 with five RBI and four runs scored, and he's now at 185 career hits and 175 career runs. Crum and Harwood went a combined 7-for-8 with seven RBI and four runs scored.
Dippman upped his record to 4-0. The right-hander's defense helped strand six runners to keep Dippman's stat line at two runs on eight hits. Sophomore Nick Strausbaugh made a run-saving catch on a dead sprint to help Dippman escape a bases-loaded sixth-inning jam unscathed.
Wooster heads out on the road for a non-conference tilt at Muskingum University (12-16) at 4 p.m. on Thursday, April 19 before returning home for three games this weekend, starting with a noon twin bill against Allegheny College (11-14, 5-4 NCAC).