LAGRANGE, Georgia – The College of Wooster baseball team dropped a pair of one-run games on Monday at LaGrange College's Cleaveland Field at Williamson Stadium. The Panthers walked off the Fighting Scots 4-3, then took the nightcap 6-5.
In the opening game, senior shortstop Eli Westrick smacked a leadoff double down the right field line and scored when sophomore catcher Colin Leslie laced a two-out single into left center.
Later, Wooster (9-5) struck for two in the top of the seventh inning with the score tied at one. Senior left fielder Grant Mitchell's single through the right side started the inning. He scored on first-year designated hitter Zack Barienbrock's single to center field. Wooster loaded the bases after sophomore catcher Nathaniel Huxtable was hit by a pitch, then sophomore first baseman Ryan Kramer scored on sophomore second baseman Andrew McGowan's fielder's choice.
Sophomore right-hander Devin Anthony retired the first five batters he faced, then worked out of a jam in the second, getting Carson Burgamy to ground out to Westrick to strand a pair of runners following the fielder's choice. Anthony retired the side in the third inning.
Junior right-hander Alex Gerdenich (0-1) took over for Anthony in the seventh and struck out the side. An unearned run scored in the eighth, pulling LaGrange (12-4) within 3-2, but Gerdenich was able to get the ground ball off the bat of Jackson McElvy for the inning-ending fielder's choice.
Brody Hollingsworth's two-run single in the bottom of the ninth was the walkoff hit. Rhett Mixon singled to lead off the inning. Colby Zinser was hit by a pitch, and the pair of Panthers moved up 90 feet on Jorge Fragoso's sacrifice bunt.
Eli Folds moved to 1-1 for LaGrange. Folds held Wooster hitless in two innings of work while striking out three.
A pair of hitting streaks – Barienbock's 10-gamer and Mitchell's nine-game run – were snapped in Monday's nightcap, as LaGrange held Wooster to just five hits, three of which were off Kramer's bat.
Wooster led 4-2 on the strength of a four-spot in the fourth inning. Four walks and a hit by pitch enabled the Scots to tie the game at two before Westrick's RBI single plated senior right fielder Bryn Langley. Kramer's first base knock of the game plated Huxtable, who drew the bases-loaded free pass.
A three-run fifth inning shifted the lead back to LaGrange. The Panthers moved ahead 5-4 on Curt Bonner's RBI ground out.
Kramer led off the ninth inning with a single to left field and came around to score on a wild pitch. However, Wooster did not manage to get the tying run on bases, as Benjamin Epperley retired the final two Scots to nail down his first save.
Nick Morgan earned his first win of the year after firing 3 2/3 innings of shutout baseball. Sophomore Sammy De Maio took the loss to fall to 2-1. De Maio allowed three runs (one earned) in one-third of an inning.
Kramer led Wooster's lineup, finishing 4-for-9 with two runs scored in the doubleheader. Fragoso and Fletcher Hislop had four hits each to pace LaGrange.
Next, Wooster plays a single game at Piedmont University (10-6) on Wednesday, March 20. First pitch is set for 6 p.m.