WOOSTER, Ohio – For the second time in the last three years, a nine-game College of Wooster baseball winning streak was snapped by Baldwin Wallace University, as the Yellow Jackets rallied late to top the Fighting Scots 7-5 on Wednesday afternoon at Art Murray Field.
Wooster (13-5), up to seventh in this week's D3baseball.com/National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Top 25 poll, turned in a strong start, both at the dish and defensively. Offensively, the Scots scored in the first for the seventh time in the last eight games. Wednesday's run scored on junior Dan Harwood's one-out single, which plated senior Jacob Stuursma, who started the inning by lacing a single to left.
Wooster was up 4-0 after two, and that three-spot started rolling with junior Dan Gail's two-bagger. Classmate Nick Strausbaugh's bunt single followed, and sophomore Noah Clement walked. Once the lineup turned over, Stuursma singled, senior Chandler Dippman plated a run with a sacrifice fly, and Clement scampered home on a wild pitch.
|
| Sophomore Evan Faxon fires a pitch in Wooster's 7-5 loss against Baldwin Wallace on Wednesday. |
Defensively, Wooster turned an inning-ending 4-6-3 twin killer in the second, and that frame was book-ended by a pair of one-two-three stanzas logged by sophomore starter Evan Faxon. Faxon ran into a jam in the fourth, as Jacob Bonner's two-out, two-run single made it a 4-2 game, but the southpaw rebounded two batters later to get JT Mazula to fly out and strand a pair of Yellow Jackets (17-8) on the bases.
That's where the score stood until the eighth inning, but Baldwin Wallace did threaten in the sixth. The Yellow Jackets had the bases loaded, but Reese Albright wandered too far from first base on Mazula's fly out. Freshman Ben Gbur gunned a throw to senior Garrett Crum to double-up the Yellow Jacket's right fielder.
In the eighth, a Wooster fielding miscue extended Baldwin Wallace's time at the dish, during which the Yellow Jackets pated three runs to take a 5-4 lead. Mazula earned redemption from his two earlier fly outs with the go-ahead, two-run single down the left field line. However, Mazula ventured into no-man's land on a grounder in the hole between short and third, with Stuursma starting a perfectly-executed rundown to get the Scots out of the jam.
Wooster knotted the game in the bottom of the eighth on junior Tyler Iversen's pinch-hit infield single. Prior to the base knock, Crum walked to lead off the inning, and Gail reached on an error. Gail's hustle ultimately factored into Iversen's infield single, as Baldwin Wallace's Tony LaParo hesitated too long to make a play on any Wooster player.
Alex Ludwick knocked in the game-winning run in the top of the ninth, while Bonner's fielder's choice gave the Yellow Jackets a two-run cushion.
Garrett Miller improved to 2-0 on the bump. The Baldwin Wallace rookie allowed one hit in 1 2/3 innings.
Dippman fell to 4-2 on the year. The Scots' utility man allowed two runs on three hits in 2/3 of an inning.
Faxon pitched well in his four innings on the bump. He allowed two runs on two hits.
Crum, Gbur, and Stuursma had two hits apiece, while junior Harry Witwer-Dukes reached twice via walks.
Bonner was the offensive hero on the day with three RBI as part of his 2-for-4 showing.
Wooster has a quick turnaround with Otterbein University (14-10) visiting Art Murray Field for a 4 p.m. tilt on Thursday.