Justin McDowell

MARIETTA, Ohio – Marietta College's Brian Gasser and Kyle Lindquist combined to throw a four-hit shutout, eliminating The College of Wooster in the NCAA Div. III Baseball Championships by a final score of 6-0 Thursday afternoon at Don Schaly Stadium.

Wooster closes its season with a 34-9 record after going two-and-out as the No. 2 seed at the Marietta regional tournament, while the host and third-seeded Pioneers (32-13) survive to face Washington & Jefferson College (32-11) later Thursday.

Gasser and the Fighting Scots' Justin McDowell settled into a pitcher's duel early, with neither team recording a hit until the fourth inning. In fact, McDowell struck out six of the first seven batters he faced.

Marietta's offense struck, though, with a two-run fifth. Casey Levens singled to left and later made it all the way to third on an error during a pickoff attempt. With a drawn-in infield, Kirby Becker dropped a soft single into right-center for the initial score of the game. Becker proceeded to steal second and then with runners on first and second, Tim Saunders sent a dribbler between first and second for a single that allowed Becker to come home all the way from second.

In the sixth, the Pioneers tacked on a single tally, using a two-out rally to do so. John Snyder found a hole through the right side for a single, advanced to second on another error during a pickoff attempt, and scored on a Braden Park base knock to centerfield.

Brett Meador gave Marietta its first of three insurance runs when he opened the eight by driving a high fastball over the left-field fence for his third homer this season. Snyder added a one-out double that landed inches inside the right-field line, and after a wild pitch and a walk, Levens drove one to deep right-center for a two-run double and six-run cushion.

That was enough for Gasser, who improved to 9-1 with 7.1 innings of scoreless work. He gave up singles to Greg Van Horn in the fourth, Michael Wellstead in the sixth, and Chris Wood in the eighth before being relieved by Lindquist.

Wooster had a chance for a rally with runners on first and second and one out, but Lindquist struck out Matthew Johnson, the North Coast Athletic Conference Player of the Year, and Stu Beath to all but seal the outcome.

McDowell was the tough-luck loser (8-3). All three runs that came in during his six innings of work were unearned, and he yielded six hits and struck out seven.