Drew Tornow tripled twice and drove in five runs during the first two innings, and made it home via a wild pitch, captured in this photograph.

WOOSTER, Ohio – The College of Wooster constructed a 9-2 lead through two innings, later broke a 9-9 tie with two runs apiece in the sixth and seventh, and then held off Denison University's rally during the top of the ninth for an entertaining 13-12 win on Wednesday at Art Murray Field.

The match-up pitted the current leaders in the North Coast Athletic Conference's divisions – Wooster, now 15-8 overall, in the East and Denison (19-6) in the West – and it may have been a preview for another meeting in the NCAC Tournament, to be held May 12-14 at Chillicothe, Ohio.

Drew Tornow paved the way for the Fighting Scots' early 9-2 lead, as he tripled in each of his first two at bats, tying a school record for triples in a game last done by Matt Groezinger in 2010. During the first inning, Tornow came up with the bases loaded, and following a passed ball that plated the initial run, he drove a triple to the centerfield wall for a 3-0 lead.

In the second, the bases were again full for Tornow, this time with two outs, and he drove one into the right-center gap and legged it out for another three-bagger, as Wooster went ahead 8-2. Two pitches later, Tornow trotted home via a wild pitch for a seemingly comfortable seven-run margin.

The Big Red, though, chipped away with two runs in the third, two in the fifth, and three in the sixth, though, there could have been more damage in the latter. With the game having been tied up at nine, Denison had runners on the corners and one out, but the Scots turned a key 6-4-3 double play.

During the home half of the sixth, Jacob Solomon produced a key two-out hit, doubling over the left fielder to bring in Jake Fling and Michael Wielansky, who started the frame with a single and four-pitch walk, respectively.

With an 11-9 advantage, Wooster turned to Michael Whitaker, who pitched a scoreless top of the seventh.

Leading off the bottom of the frame, Joey Gilmore tripled past the right fielder and Chandler Dippman followed with a sharp RBI single into centerfield. Fling and Wielansky added one-out singles to load the bases for Jamie Lackner, who drove in Dippman via a sacrifice fly to right.

That turned out to be a pivotal insurance run. After making quick work of the Big Red in the eighth, Whitaker ran into trouble during the ninth inning. Consecutive one-out doubles by Noah Hahn and Brandon Morgan made it a 13-10 game, and the Scots summoned Wielansky to the mound for just the second time in his young career.

The shortstop-turned-closer hit the first batter he faced, fanned the next, then issued a walk to load the bases with two outs. Evan Flax came through for Denison by dropping a two-run single into center and sending the tying run to third base.

Wielansky still closed it out, getting the ensuing hitter to send a lazy fly into right-center that Fling camped under for the final out.

Six Scots had multi-hit outings – Ryan Ostendorf (2-for-5), Fling (3-for-4), Wielansky (2-for-3), Tornow (2-for-5, 5 RBI), Solomon (2-for-2, 3 RBI), and Dippman (2-for-4).

Wooster will be in action again on Thursday afternoon with a road game against the University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg (16-13).