Michael Houdek

Nanak Saran

The College of Wooster clinched first-place in the North Coast Athletic Conference East Division once again, when Michael Houdek shut down divisional opponent Oberlin College 4-1 during Sunday's first game, and Nanak Saran one-upped Houdek by tossing his second shutout, a 6-0 five-hitter, for the series sweep at Dill Field in Oberlin, Ohio.

Wooster (26-9, 14-2 NCAC) has now finished atop the NCAC East four years running, and will host the West Division's fourth-place team, still to be determined, during the NCAC Cross-Over Series on May 7-8.

The Fighting Scots' starting pitchers threw consecutive complete games during Saturday's 3-2 and 14-2 wins, and Houdek and Saran followed suit on Sunday.

First, Houdek toed the mound and yielded a run three batters into his outing, but that turned out to be the only one scored by Oberlin (13-24, 5-11 NCAC) all day. The junior southpaw got into a groove after that, as he scattered two other hits – both infield singles – and did not walk any the last six innings to improve to 6-2 on the season.

Wooster's offense broke through with some two-out magic in the sixth inning. Michael Wielansky struck a double into left field, and on the very next pitch, Jamie Lackner singled him home to put the Scots ahead 2-1. Ryan Ostendorf and Drew Tornow followed with back-to-back RBI doubles, both into left-center, for a couple of insurance runs.

In game two, Wooster did not waste much time in giving Saran a comfortable lead to work with, tallying two runs in each of the first two innings. Another double by Wielansky scored Joey Gilmore, who had walked, and shortly after, Ostendorf drove in Wielansky on a fielder's choice play.

Jacob Solomon, Kenny Reckart, and Chandler Dippman started the second with consecutive singles, with Dippman's plating Solomon for a 3-0 advantage. Wielansky later contributed a sacrifice fly for the fourth run.

Saran took it from there, dominating the Yeomen bats as the sophomore right-hander was rarely challenged. He did give up back-to-back singles in the fourth and the runners were on second and third with one out, but a strikeout and fly out erased the threat.

The Scots' offense continued that momentum in the top of the fifth with a two-run homer by Tornow, marking his second home run in as many days.

An impressive finish saw Saran, now 4-2, retire the final 11 batters he faced, with four of his six strikeouts coming during that stretch. His second shutout consisted of no walks in addition to the five hits allowed.

Offensively on the day, Lackner combined to go 4-for-7 to lead all hitters.

Before the NCAC Cross-Over Series, Wooster will play a home-and-home with Otterbein University (25-7) this week, first traveling to Westerville, Ohio, on Tuesday for a 4 p.m. first pitch.