Chris Constantine

WOOSTER, Ohio – The College of Wooster built a six-run lead, and after Baldwin-Wallace College made a game of it in the sixth inning, the Fighting Scots' offense exploded with two in the bottom of the sixth and eight in the seventh to pull away to a 16-6 non-league win Thursday at an unseasonably warm Art Murray Field.

Wooster (14-3), which had combined for just five hits during a doubleheader with conference rival Allegheny College in its most recent action, busted out of the slump with 17 hits in all. Three came in the very first inning, as after a one-out walk Stu Beath got things going with a double to straightaway center. Then, Matt Groezinger found a hole on the right side for an RBI single, and after he advanced to third, a solid single to left from Greg Van Horn plated him for a quick 3-0 lead.

The Groezinger-Van Horn combination worked again in the third, with the former lining a double into right and the latter bringing him around via a single up the middle.

The Scots kept rolling during the fourth inning, this time with the key hit coming from Luke Sutton as he delivered a two-out, two-run double to right-center, which made it a 6-0 game.

Baldwin-Wallace got to starting pitcher Matt Barnes in the sixth. Barnes had limited the Yellow Jackets to two hits before they tagged him for three runs that frame, including a Chris Nealon solo homer.

Responding right away, Shane Swearingen opened Wooster's half of the sixth with a sharp double down the left-field line. He scored on a groundout and then Matthew Johnson drove one to left-center, just clearing the fence for his third solo home run in two home games this season, which pushed the lead back to a more comfortable 8-3 margin.

The Scots sealed the win during the seventh. Beath led off with a single and scored on a one-out base knock off Van Horn's bat. That was followed by Zack Vesco's RBI double into right-center, pushing the score to 10-3, and after a second out, Wooster strung together two hit by pitches and five hits, headlined by Chris Constantine's pinch-hit grand slam. Having batted around, Beath followed Constantine with a bomb of his own to right field – his second home run this spring – for a 16-3 cushion.

Barnes earned the win (3-1), going the first six innings and yielding the three runs on seven hits and five walks, while striking out seven.

Beath and Van Horn both had three-hit days, going 3-for-5 with two RBI and 3-for-4 with three RBI, respectively, and Johnson (2-for-4) and Groezinger (2-for-4) also contributed multi-hit outings.

Wooster will be right back in action Friday when it travels to Case Western Reserve University (10-11).