Hosted by Wittenberg
University
May 6-7, 2004 • Carleton Davidson Stadium • Springfield,
Ohio
SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - For the second straight day, the College of
Wooster Fighting Scots got the best of one of the ace pitchers on
the Denison Big Red staff. The resulting offensive barrage - 13-8
on Thursday in Game 1 and 9-8 on Friday in Game 2 - led to a 2-0
sweep, a ninth North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament
championship and an automatic berth in the NCAA Division III
Tournament.
Wooster, the NCAC East Division champion, improved to 35-8 overall
with the win, while Denison, champion of the West Division, dropped
to 31-7 overall. The Scots, who won the tournament crown for a
conference-record ninth time, avenged an NCAC Tournament semifinal
defeat against Denison a year ago, and they recorded their third
win against no defeats on the season against the Big Red.
This one was anything but easy, though, and the action was choppy
at best thanks to four errors by each team. Of the 16 runs scored
in the game, six were unearned, including the last three runs
Wooster scored to take the lead in an eventful eighth inning.
Denison committed four errors in the inning, two on one play as the
Scots cleared the bases on a bases-loaded Luke Ullman single, a
fielding error and a throwing error. All four runs in the inning
were charged to Denison's Dallas Puskar, who was credited with the
loss despite allowing just two hits and one walk while facing six
Wooster hitters after coming on in relief of Big Red starter Drew
Shamrock.
It was a fitting end to a game that started with three Wooster
errors in the top of the first inning, which resulted in two
Denison runs. The Big Red pushed the lead out to 7-2 in the fifth
inning on a two-run double by Shamrock, a sacrifice fly by Lee
Fischer and an RBI single by Alex Nicolich. But Wooster set the
stage for a comeback in the sixth by getting three of those runs
back on a home run by Mark Lucas.
After taking a 9-7 lead with the aforementioned four runs in the
eighth inning, Wooster pitcher James Amendola ran into trouble
after yielding a lead-off single to Denison's Adam Mandel. Amendola
was relieved by Justin Alaburda, who allowed Mandel to come around
and score on a Fischer single. A wild pitch, two outs and a stolen
base later and the tying run was just 90 feet away, but Alaburda
earned his first save of the season with a strikeout to end the
game.
Amendola got the win in relief of Wooster starter Brian Miller as
he threw 3 2/3 innings, allowing three hits, two walks and one
earned run against the potent Denison lineup. Miller allowed six
hits and seven runs, five earned, in 4 1/3 innings. Denison starter
Drew Shamrock went seven strong innings, allowing eight hits, five
walks and five runs, four earned, in seven innings. He appeared to
be in good position to pick up his ninth win against no losses this
season after recording his 11th strikeout of the game to end a
bases-loaded seventh-inning threat, but it wasn't to be.
Offensively, Wooster had four players finish with two hits each -
Ullman, Matt Miller, Jake Frank and Lucas. Denison had three
players collect two hits each - Mandel, Fischer and Shamrock.
Fischer and Shamrock each had three runs batted in.