ALTON, Illinois – The College of Wooster baseball team belted eight home runs, as the Fighting Scots lived to play at least one more game with a 21-3 rout of Crown College (Minnesota) on Sunday at Lloyd Alton Field. With the win, Wooster plays the loser of the winners' bracket game between fifth-ranked Webster University (Missouri) (38-6) and Bethel University (Minnesota) (34-9) at approximately 7 p.m. ET/6 p.m. CT on Sunday, May 22, with the winner of that game earning a spot in Monday's championship round.
Wooster (31-15) senior center fielder Ben Gbur set the tone, hammering the second pitch of the game from Crown (30-15) ace Eric Newman out to left field for his team-leading 11th round-tripper of the year. However, the power surge really started in the sixth inning, with Wooster drilling six of its dingers from that inning on.
A back-to-back spot headlined Wooster's six-run sixth inning, during which the Scots opened an 8-1 lead. Impressively, all six runs scored with two outs, including three on senior catcher Michael Thomas' first home run of the afternoon. Gbur followed suit with his second longball of the game. Prior to the home runs, sophomore second baseman Eli Westrick reached on an infield single and later scored on a wild pitch, then senior left fielder Dominic Stilliana plated junior first baseman Dane Camphausen on a single to left center.
Westrick went opposite field for his second home run of the regional in the seventh inning, then the flood gates were opened. Camphausen blasted a solo home run next, then junior designated hitter Dean Brown capped a remarkable back-to-back-to-back home run stretch, with his solo shot upping the lead to 11-3. Next, first-year third baseman Nick Pett and Stilliana drew back-to-back walks, then Thomas mashed his second three-run homer of the game, which capped the Scots' second straight six-run inning.
In the eighth inning, senior right fielder Ben Hines drilled Wooster's eighth home run of the day, with that total tied for the third-most in single-game program history. The two-run blast capped a five-spot, as Wooster's lead ballooned to 19-3.
Wooster matched its single-game NCAA postseason record with 21 runs, thanks to two more in the ninth. Sophomore first baseman Bryn Langley and sophomore pitcher Grant Mitchell laced back-to-back singles, then Pett had an RBI base knock. Run 21 of the day came in via an error.
Junior Owen Barnard's signature outing sparked Wooster, as the right-hander held Crown's potent offense to a run on four hits in five innings of work. Barnard, who improved to 2-0 struck out four. Brown, Mitchell, and senior right-hander Alex Gasper each worked a scoreless inning of relief.
Newman struck out 10 in his 6 1/3 innings of work, but Wooster got to the Crown ace for nine runs on 10 hits. The Polars' bullpen imploded once Newman excited, as Wooster tagged that group for 12 runs in 2 2/3 innings.
Gbur and Thomas combined to go 5-for-8 with eight RBI and four home runs. The duo matched the program's single-game home run record for NCAA postseason play and their two-homer games marked the first by a Scot in NCAA play since Sean Karpen went deep twice against Carthage College at the 2009 Div. III "World Series." Thomas' six RBI tied Matt Jackson's single-game program record for NCAA play, and Jackson's six-RBI game came at the 1997 Div. III "World Series."
With his four runs scored, Gbur now has 75 on the year, the fourth-most in single-season program history. The four-year star is now three hits shy of joining Karpen (2009), Trevor Urban (1997), and Michael Wielansky (2018) with 75 hits and 75 runs in a single season.
Other key Scots in the win included Pett and Stilliana, who combined to go 5-for-8 with six runs scored and four RBI out of the seventh and eighth spots in the lineup.
Seth Betts went 2-for-4 with a two-run homer to lead Crown.
Wooster previously scored 21 runs in a NCAA postseason game against the University of Rochester in 2019. Wooster's old high for NCAA postseason home runs was four against North Coast Athletic Conference rival Ohio Wesleyan University in 1987.