Kent State, Otterbein, Marietta Highlight Challenging Week for No. 1 Scots

Jake Sankal

Off to a perfect 23-0 start, The College of Wooster, ranked No. 1 for the third-straight week in the American Baseball Coaches’ Association/Collegiate Baseball NCAA Div. III poll, faces its most challenging week to date, with match-ups against a Div. I opponent and two against nationally-ranked Div. III teams. On Wednesday, April 11, the Fighting Scots will visit Kent State University (12-19), the defending Mid-American Conference champions, for a 4 p.m. opening pitch. It will mark Wooster’s fourth meeting with the 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 be at Otterbein College (14-5), which was preseason No. 1 in Div. III and has since slipped to No. 21 in the ABCA’s bi-weekly poll, Thursday April 12, at 4 p.m. Wooster holds a 41-5 all-time record over the Cardinals, however, one of those losses came last year at an NCAA Div. III Regional Tournament when Otterbein shut down the Scots 4-1. This weekend, April 14-15, Wooster is scheduled for four more non-conference games, starting with three against Wabash College (8-17-1) at the Scots’ Art Murray Field. They’ll play a twinbill on Saturday, starting at 1 p.m., which will mark the squads’ first encounter since the 2003 spring break trip when the Scots edged the Little Giants 6-1 to improve to 9-0 in the all-time series. Wooster will host Wabash in a single nine-inning game Sunday at noon and then take on the Div. III defending national champs, No. 30 Marietta College (14-6), in another nine-inning game, beginning at approximately 3 p.m. It will mark Marietta’s first visit to Wooster since May 7, 1987, when the two traditional Ohio powers split a doubleheader. In 2005, they played at Pioneer Park, with the Scots winning 16-8, but prior to that, they had not met in the regular season since 1988. Marietta and Wooster did play seven times in NCAA regional tourneys between 1989-2004, and the Pioneers owned a slim 4-3 advantage.

Last Week: Wooster continued its best start in school history, earning three doubleheader sweeps and six total wins to improve to 23-0 overall, including 11-0 in the North Coast Athletic Conference East Division.

On April 2, Sheldon Steiner (Dalton, Ohio / Central Christian) homered three times and totaled seven RBI, leading the Scots to a 12-6, 17-5 sweep of host Kenyon College during divisional action. In the opener, Jeff Kaatz (Huron, Ohio / Huron) started on the mound and picked up the win (2-0), while Mark Miller (Convoy, Ohio / Crestview) notched his second save. Kaatz went the first four innings, allowing four earned runs on eight hits and two walks while striking out three. Miller finished the last three innings, during which he yielded the first earned run of his collegiate career in his 19th inning of work. Matt Barnes (Pittsburgh, Pa. / Langley) earned the victory (4-0) in game two, and only two of the five runs he allowed were earned. Barnes also struck out nine in just five innings. On the day, Steiner finished 5-for-8 with six runs and the seven RBI, while similarly, Shaun Swearingen (Hilliard, Ohio / Bishop Watterson) was 5-for-8, including a two-run homer, and scored four runs and drove in five others. Additionally, Jake Sankal (Mentor, Ohio / Mentor) and Sean Karpen (Venetia, Pa. / Peters Township) each had four hits, with Sankal going 4-for-6 with four runs, two RBI, and two stolen bases and Karpen 4-for-8 with four runs and four RBI.

On April 6, Wooster’s pitching staff combined to hold Oberlin College to four hits and the offense scored a run in all but three innings during a 7-1, 7-0 sweep in NCAC East Division action at an unseasonably cold Art Murray Field. Game one saw the Scots score five runs, all unearned, over the first three innings to take a commanding lead. In fact, they had just three hits during that stretch – an RBI single for Oliver Enos (Charlottesville, Va. / Covenant School) in the first, Sankal’s second-inning RBI double and an RBI single off the bat of Brandon Boesiger (Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio / Cuyahoga Falls) in the third. That was more than enough offense for Wooster ace Adam Samson (Orrville, Ohio / Orrville), who limited Oberlin to one hit and struck out seven without a walk through five innings. Samson upped his record to 4-0 and lowered his ERA under 2.00 (1.91). In the nightcap, the Yeomen stayed close as it was 1-0 heading into the fourth. Then, Steiner homered to lead off that frame, marking his fifth home run over the last five games, and the Scots also added an unearned run that inning and one of their two in the sixth was unearned as they took a  5-0 lead. In the sixth, Wooster added two more, both coming in on a Dean Palombaro (Youngstown, Ohio / Cardinal Mooney) single. That scored Swearingen, who reached via a hit by pitch for the third time on the afternoon, and Dan Skulina (Strongsville, Ohio / Walsh Jesuit), who had doubled. Matt DeGrand (Stow, Ohio / St. Vincent-St. Mary) and Kaatz combined for the shutout. DeGrand worked the first six innings, scattering just two hits and two walks and striking out five, while Kaatz struck out the side in the seventh. Offensively on the day, Sankal was 3-for-6 with four of the Scots’ 14 runs and Steiner was 3-for-7. Also producing multiple hits was Boesiger (2-for-4).

On April 7, Wooster swept Oberlin again, this time by scores of 12-2 and 4-1 during a twinbill at Art Murray Field, which featured seven snow delays. In the opener, Karpen, Swearingen, and Bubba O’Donnell (Cincinnati, Ohio / St. Xavier) each had RBI triples. On the mound, Barnes improved to 5-0 and struck out six while working the first five innings, and Miller had five strikeouts over the final two scoreless innings. The nightcap saw the Scots score four unearned runs during the second inning to pave the way for another victory. John Quimby (Pittsburgh, Pa. / North Allegheny) had a one-out double, which scored two runners whom had reached via errors, and one out later O’Donnell doubled in Quimby, followed by another Karpen triple. Seeing his first action since returning from the spring break trip, Anthony Trapuzzano (Pittsburgh, Pa. / Canevin Catholic) allowed just two hits and one walk while striking out eight over 5.0 innings and upping his record to 5-0. On the day, Karpen went 3-for-5 with two runs and three RBI and O’Donnell was also 3-for-5, with all three of hits going for extra bases. He scored three runs and drove in two others.