Jake Fling

Harry Witwer-Dukes

CLEVELAND – The second-ranked College of Wooster baseball team erupted for a 10-run second inning, and withstood 12th-ranked Case Western Reserve University's chip-away effort for an 11-6 win in a key non-conference regional game on Wednesday afternoon at Nobby's Ballpark.

Down 2-0, junior Chandler Dippman drew a bases-loaded walk in the top of the second inning for Wooster's (26-4) first run of the game, and sophomore Harry Witwer-Dukes followed with a RBI groundout to knot the contest at two. Next, sophomore Aaron Spidell laced a single up the middle that CWRU (25-7) second baseman Rocco Maue slowed with a diving stop, but that deflection enabled Dippman to scoot home easily on the two-run base knock that made it 4-2.

Two batters later, senior Jake Fling banged a single through the left side to plate Spidell, and sophomore Dan Harwood drew the Scots' second bases-loaded walk of the frame to make it 6-0. Then, junior Garrett Crum crushed a two-run double to left-center, and with the poke, the first baseman moved into the team lead for RBI at 54.

Sophomore Dan Gail's sacrifice fly and Dippman's single into shallow center drove in the final two runs of the frame.

CWRU kept inching closer with a run in the second, third, fourth, and seventh innings, with the final one pulling the Spartans within 10-6.

Wooster responded with a run in the top of the eighth inning that knocked the Scots' lead back out to five. Witwer-Dukes led off the frame with a single, and moved into scoring position on smooth-swinging one-out single off the bat of junior Jacob Stuursma. Fling followed suit with a RBI single to put the finishing touches on a three-hit afternoon.

Wooster, which outhit CWRU 11-10, also had a multi-hit effort from Witwer-Dukes.

Junior Wyatt Linde improved to 2-0 on the season. The southpaw allowed one run on two hits in 2 1/3 innings of relief. First-years Jack Jones and Andrew Hill fired scoreless eighth and ninth innings respectively to help secure the win.

Defensively, Wooster helped senior starter Alec Hammond escape further damage during a two-run first inning with an around-the-horn 5-4-3 inning-ending double play. Later in the game, Wielansky and Crum teamed up on an inning-ending 6-3 twin killer to end the seventh inning.

Alex Capetillo led CWRU with a 3-for-5 showing while also scoring three runs. Mark Gross was tagged for eight runs (seven earned) in 1 1/3 innings and fell to 4-4 on the year.

Wooster returns home to face No. 18 La Roche College (24-6-1) at 4 p.m. on Thursday, April 26.