Tyler Schuch

Jake Fling

The College of Wooster's offense produced big numbers once again, as the Fighting Scots, ranked No. 9 in this week's D3baseball.com top-25 poll, put up a nine-spot on the board during the third inning en route to a season-high scoring effort in Tuesday afternoon's 23-6 rout of John Carroll University at University Hts., Ohio.

Wooster (25-5), which has now reached double figures in 18 games this year, including five in a row, fell behind 2-0 through two innings, then turned things around quickly in the top of the third. Kenny Reckart took a leadoff walk, followed by a Jake Fling single, and Frank Vance stroked a one-out double – his 16th of the season – to plate Reckart. Jamie Lackner gave the Scots a lead they would never relinquish when he singled in Fling and Vance for the first two of his five RBI.

That was still just the early stages of the top half of the third. John McLain was hit by a pitch and Jacob Solomon contributed a single to load the bases for Tyler Schuch, who drove in two by finding a hole through the left side to make it 5-2. Another hit batsman filled the bases again and Reckart brought home Solomon via a sacrifice fly. The inning continued with a Fling walk, a wild pitch that scored Schuch, and a two-run single off the bat of Joey Gilmore, resulting in a 9-2 cushion.

John Carroll (21-10) did bounce back for three runs during the bottom of the frame, all on a John Gentile home run, to pull within four runs.

Wooster's bats kept pounding the ball, though. Doubles by McLain and Schuch keyed a two-run fourth inning, and after adding an unearned tally in the fifth, Schuch and Reckart both singled and scored during the sixth, and two more came across in the seventh when Fling delivered a bases-loaded single.

Already ahead 16-6 going into the eighth inning, the Scots scored seven more times, featuring a two-run homer by Lackner. He now is tied for the NCAA Div. III lead in that category with 13 this season.

Fling (3-for-5), Lackner (3-for-7), and Schuch (3-for-3) all finished with three-hit outings, with Fling and Schuch also drawing two walks apiece.

Wooster will be right back in action on Wednesday, returning home for a top-10 match-up against seventh-ranked Heidelberg University (25-6). First pitch at Art Murray Field is slated for 4 p.m.