CHILLICOTHE, Ohio – The College of Wooster baseball team gave third-ranked Denison University another battle, but the Big Red's four-run fourth inning was the difference in their 10-5 win over the Fighting Scots on Saturday at VA Memorial Stadium in the championship round of the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament.
Wooster, which concludes its season at 24-17-1, made some noise in the ninth inning against Denison (35-5) reliever Manny Nager, who gave up twice as many runs as he had all season entering play. Junior first baseman Ryan Kramer provided the ERA-denting blast with his 10th homer of the year. The two-run opposite-field shot scored sophomore third baseman Zack Barienbrock, who reached on a single through the left side. Senior left fielder Nick Pett walked and first-year shortstop Luke Rizzo drilled a single off Nager's foot before Ryan Paganelis was able to get a pair of flyouts to give Denison its sixth consecutive NCAC Tournament title.
Denison struck first when Erik Sundgren's high chopper off home plate scored Jack Lutte, who led off the bottom of the first inning with a double. The fourth is where Wooster ran into trouble, as Lutte's second double of the contest made it 3-0. Later, Sundgren stole second on a delayed steal. Wooster threw down, enabling Eric Colaco to score the final run of the inning, which made it 6-0.
Sophomore designated hitter Andrew Kerr, who hit the go-ahead ninth-inning homer in Friday's 3-2 win over Wittenberg University to send Wooster to the championship round, laced a two-out single up the middle in the fifth inning. He scored Wooster's first run when Barienbrock singled up the middle two batters later.
Wooster was within 7-3 in the sixth, but Cade Nowik answered the Scots' two-run inning with a two-run homer during the Big Red's trip to the dish. In the top of the inning, Wooster battered lefty Michael Gray, with Rizzo, senior right fielder Alex Gerdenich, and junior catcher Nathaniel Huxtable stringing together three straight singles to load the bases. First-year second baseman Maanav Bhatt reached on a fielder's choice, and his grounder that was booted by Denison's Alex Vasquez led to an extended inning for Wooster. Kerr made Denison pay with an RBI ground out for the second run of the inning.
Sam Larson started for Denison and allowed a run on three hits in five innings to improve to 5-0. Ryan Starr tossed a scoreless inning of relief.
Wooster junior Devin Anthony dropped to 0-5. He allowed four runs on five hits in 3 1/3 innings. Sophomore right-hander Ben Tarpey fired 1 2/3 scoreless innings of relief.
Kramer was Wooster's top bat, finishing 3-for-5 with two doubles and a homer. Bhatt, Pett, Rizzo, and junior pitcher Jack Spring represented Wooster on the all-tournament team. Rizzo finished his debut NCAC Tournament 9-for-16 with six RBI. Bhatt and Pett were recognized on the all-tournament team for their electric defense throughout. Spring had a complete-game five-hitter in Wooster's 10-2 victory over Wabash College on Friday.
Eron Vega sparked Denison from the bottom of the lineup, finishing 4-for-4 with two RBI. He was joined on the all-tournament team by most valuable player Lutte, Jake Blozey, Will Rettig, and Nick Falter.
The other all-tournament spots went to Wittenberg's Thatcher Dietz and Rocco Royer and Wabash's DJ Mendez.
