Camphausen, Scots Power Past Owls

GAMBIER, Ohio – Dane Camphausen feasted on Kenyon College's pitching to help lead The College of Wooster baseball team to a North Coast Athletic Conference sweep over the Owls on Tuesday afternoon at McClosky Field. Wooster's potent offense invoked the run-ahead rule twice, with the Fighting Scots leading 12-2 after seven innings of play in the opener and 19-9 after eight innings of play in the nightcap.

Camphausen was charged up against a team Wooster (9-10, 4-0 NCAC) wound up needing to sweep on the final day of the regular season just to make last year's NCAC Tournament. The senior first baseman blasted a Frank Lynch pitch in the first for a three-run homer and found the power alley again in the third for his team-leading eighth round-tripper of the year. Camphausen's second blast made it a 4-1 game.

First-year designated hitter Ryan Kramer led off Wooster's four-run sixth inning with a single down the left field line and scored when junior left fielder Bryn Langley roped a two-run single up the middle. Sophomore third baseman Nick Pett doubled in his return to the lineup, and that two-run knock broke the game wide open. For good measure, first-year center fielder John Panstares plated Camphausen with a seventh-inning single to left field, first-year catcher Colin Leslie brought Panstares home on a single to right field, and Pett went gap-to-gap with his doubles, with the second one upping the Scots' lead to 12-2.

First-year Devin Anthony (3-0) went the distance, striking out seven, while allowing two runs on six hits. He did not walk anybody. Lynch (2-1) was tagged for four runs on five hits in 2 2/3 innings, and he struggled to find command, walking five Scots.

Kenyon (13-8, 1-3 NCAC) gambled when Camphausen stepped to the dish in the first inning of the nightcap, intentionally walking him to load the bases. That left nowhere to put senior right fielder Dean Brown, who eventually walked to force in a run, and the Scots were still primed with bases loaded and only one out. However, Kenyon's Jackson Niedel escaped further damage by getting the next two Scots to strike out. Camphausen extracted his revenge in the third with a leadoff homer to center field, pulling him within a homer of becoming the 15th player in program history with 30 career round-trippers.

Wooster had no mercy come the fifth inning, breaking a 2-2 tie with a 10-piece. Langley's double to right center broke the tie, and he scored two batters later on Leslie's safety squeeze. First-year third baseman Andrew McGowan followed with a memorable first collegiate hit, with it going in the books as a two-run homer. Later, Langley greeted Kai Caso - the third pitcher of the inning for Kenyon - with a grand slam that capped the inning's scoring.

Another crooked number was hung on the board in the eighth, when Wooster scored six times, two of which came in on junior second baseman Eli Westrick's opposite-field single. Camphausen capped his day with a two-run double, and Brown sent him home with a base knock.

Senior Owen Barnard (1-0) scored the win, allowing two runs on five hits in five innings. He struck out four. Barnard worked out of trouble in the second ringing up leadoff hitter Nate Rosen with the bases loaded. Sophomore Thomas Gfell fired a scoreless eighth inning for the Scots.

Camphausen torched Kenyon for seven RBI, and he scored seven times as part of his 5-for-8 day, which saw four of the hits go for extra bases. Panstares was as steady as they come when it came to getting on base, going 6-for-9 with three runs score. Leslie finished 4-for-7 with two RBI and two runs scored.

Tripper Capps led Kenyon, going 4-for-7 with a homer.

Next, Wooster hosts Case Western Reserve University (11-11) at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, April 5.