Top-Ranked Scots On the Road This Week, Including Kent State Wednesday

Pat Christensen

After seeing its school record 27-game winning streak finally snapped, The College of Wooster, ranked No. 1 in the American Baseball Coaches’ Association/Collegiate Baseball NCAA Div. III poll, takes to the road this week for all six of its scheduled contests. First, on Wednesday, April 18, in a change from the original schedule, the Fighting Scots will visit Kent State University (14-20), the defending Mid-American Conference champions, for a 4 p.m. opening pitch. It will mark Wooster’s fourth meeting with the NCAA Div. I Golden Flashes this decade, beating them 5-4 in 2003 and suffering 12-0 and 12-1 setbacks during 2004 and 2006, respectively. The Scots will also be in action Thursday, April 19, when they’ll travel to Heidelberg College (18-7), coached by Wooster alum Matt Palm ‘95. Game time is set for 4 p.m. The Scots are 49-20 all-time against the ‘Berg, including a perfect 4-0 record during the 2000s (12-5 in 2006, 10-3 and 10-7 in 2004, 23-13 in 2003). This Saturday and Sunday, April 21-22, Wooster will play its final four-game North Coast Athletic Conference East Division series of the season, squaring off with Hiram College (4-20, 1-7 NCAC East) in a pair of doubleheaders, starting at 1 p.m. each day. The Scots have already clinched their seventh-straight divisional title and one of the No. 1 seeds for the upcoming NCAC Tournament, while Hiram is still vying for a postseason spot. Wooster swept all four games from the Terriers each of the last two years, including 15-2, 10-2, 12-11, and 9-1 in 2006.

Last Week: The Scots won four of five games last week and are now 27-1 overall.

On April 12, Wooster set a school record, winning its 24th consecutive game, as the Scots used an eight-run fourth inning to roll past northeastern Ohio foe Case Western Reserve University 17-0 at a cold, wet Art Murray Field. Previously, Wooster had accumulated 23-game winning streaks during the 1979 and 1998 seasons. The Scots took a 1-0 lead into the bottom of the third and expanded on it when Jake Sankal (Mentor, Ohio / Mentor) blasted a solo homer well over the right-centerfield fence. Shaun Swearingen (Hilliard, Ohio / Bishop Watterson) followed with a single and scored on Sheldon Steiner’s double (Dalton, Ohio / Central Christian), and then Pat Christensen (Cincinnati, Ohio / Sycamore) homered to straightaway center to make it a 4-0 game. Wooster’s bats remained hot, as in the fourth, three of the first four hitters had extra-base hits – a two-run home run from Dan Skulina (Strongsville, Ohio / Walsh Jesuit) and back-to-back doubles by Bubba O’Donnell (Cincinnati, Ohio / St. Xaver) and Sankal – which gave it a commanding 7-0 lead. While the offense was putting up big numbers, Scot ace Adam Samson (Orrville, Ohio / Orrville) was cruising on the mound. He faced the minimum through five innings, striking out six and yielding just one single and one walk. Samson is now 5-0 with a 1.66 ERA. Offensively, Sankal (2-for-3, 2 RBI), Swearingen (2-for-3), and Christensen (2-for-2, 3 RBI) led the Scots with multiple hits.

On April 13, Wooster defeated Case 9-1, behind six shutout innings from starting pitcher Matt DeGrand (Stow, Ohio / St. Vincent- St. Mary). The freshman right-hander escaped trouble each of the first three innings, stranding runners in scoring position with less than two outs. With the Scots nursing a 1-0 lead, they added to it with two runs during the fifth, keyed by Dan Skulina’s (Strongsville, Ohio / Walsh Jesuit) 10th double of the season. Ahead 3-0, John Quimby (Pittsburgh, Pa. / North Allegheny) delivered the knockout blow in the sixth with a three-run homer to the opposite field (right-center). DeGrand ended up giving up seven hits, but didn’t walk a batter and struck out five during his six innings of work, all while upping his record to 4-0 and lowering his ERA under 2.00 (1.82). Pacing the Scots’ attack was Christensen, who went 3-for-4 with two doubles.

On April 14, Anthony Trapuzzano (Pittsburgh, Pa. / Canevin Catholic) and Matt Barnes (Pittsburgh, Pa. / Langley) each threw complete-game shutouts, leading Wooster to a sweep of 8-0 and 6-0 victories over Wabash College. Trapuzzano’s was a one-hitter during the opener, as a single through the left side in the second inning was the only blemish on his stat line. The sophomore right-hander struck out 10, matching a career-high, and did not walk a batter. Barnes, a freshman right-hander, was nearly as impressive, yielding three hits and a walk while striking out seven. They marked the first-complete game shutouts of their young careers. Offensively in game one, the Scots produced a run in every inning except for the first. Their first three tallies were unearned, then in the fourth Skulina hit an RBI double to left-center, and with two outs and the bases empty in the fifth, Christensen easily cleared the left field fence, marking his sixth home run of the year. Wooster added a three-run sixth inning for good measure, highlighted by a Brandon Boesiger (Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio / Cuyahoga Falls) homer to left field. In game two, Wabash kept it close until the sixth inning when the Scots expanded on a 2-0 lead via a Boesiger leadoff home run and an RBI double off the bat of Sankal, followed by a Sean Karpen (Venetia, Pa. / Peters Twp.) RBI single. Christensen combined for a four-hit day, going 4-for-7 with four RBI, and Skulina had three hits (3-for-3) in the opener alone to lead Wooster.

On April 15, Wabash’s pitcher tossed a two-hitter, ending the Scots’ school record win streak at 27 games, as the Little Giants took early 1-0 and 3-1 leads and then held off some late threats by No. 1 ranked Wooster for a 3-2 triumph at a cold, overcast Art Murray Field. Wabash put the Scots in a hole right from the start, scoring once in the top of the first, but Wooster starter John Warren (New Castle, Pa. / Union Area) averted further trouble, stranding runners on second and third with one out. The Scots evened it up 1-1 without getting a hit in the second, however, the Little Giants answered with a one-out, two-run homer during the third. That would be all of Wabash’s offense, as Warren settled in, allowing just two more hits after the third inning. Warren allowed seven base knocks in all and walked a pair while striking out seven over six innings of work, and then Mark Miller (Convoy, Ohio / Crestview) got all nine batters he faced out, including setting four down on strikes. Wooster’s bats never got going, though, with the exception of a Swearingen RBI single in the seventh, which scored Christensen for the second time in the game.