MARIETTA, Ohio — #8 Marietta College suffered a 4-3 setback to visiting Mideast Region rival #4 College of Wooster Thursday (April 8) night under the lights of Don Schaly Stadium. The loss dropped the Pioneers' record to 18-5, while the Fighting Scots improved to 17-6. [Box Score]

Marietta out hit Wooster 11-8 but stranded 11 runners and struck out 15 times in the loss. The Fighting Scots left five on base and overcame the only error of the game.

Marietta took the 1-0 advantage in the first. Freshman right fielder Jordan Grilliot (Brookville, Northmont) reached on bunt single. Senior designated hitter Chris Beatty (Seven Fields, Pa., Hampton) followed with a double, which moved Grilliot to third. Junior center fielder John Snyder (Altoona, Pa., Altoona) then drove in Grilliot with a RBI groundout.

Solo home runs from Greg Van Horn in the second and Matthew Johnson in the third gave Wooster its first lead of the night. The Fighting Scots then tacked on a run with a RBI triple from Michael Wellstead in the fourth to extend their lead to 3-1.

The Pioneers pulled to within a run with three straight singles from junior left fielder Britt Meador (Columbus, Worthington Kilbourne), freshman third baseman Braden Park (Oxford, Talawanda) and sophomore second baseman Kirby Becker (South Euclid, St. Ignatius), who picked up the RBI, to start the fourth.

The Fighting Scots added an insurance run with a Shane Swearingen RBI single in the seventh, which plated Wellstead, who opened the inning with a double.

Marietta made it 4-3 in the eighth when Levens drove in Becker with a RBI single after Becker led off the with a single, advanced to second on an error and moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by senior catcher Dan Jones (Lima, Shawnee).

The Etta Express could not get the tying run across in its final at-bat and fell 4-3.

Park, Becker and Levens all finished with two hits for the Pioneers. Johnson, Van Horn and Wellstead had two hits for the Scots.

Sophomore starter Austin Blaski (Pandora, Gilboa) allowed one run on two hits with one walk and two strikeouts over the first two innings. Junior Mark Williams (Fayetteville, Perry) followed by giving up two runs on three hits with three strikeouts in his two frames. He suffered the loss to fall to 4-3 on the season. Sophomore Brian Gasser (New Philadelphia, Indian Valley) pitched two scoreless innings, giving up one hit and striking out one, in his time on the mound. Sophomore Logan Lewis (Nashport, Tri Valley) allowed one run on two hits and walked one in 2/3 of inning. Sophomore Kyle Lindquist (Columbus, Worthington Kilbourne) did not allow a hit and struck out five over the final 2 1/3 innings.

Senior Matt DeGrand got the start for Wooster. The right-hander scattered two runs on eight hits, struck out six and walked one in five innings to earn the win and improve to 3-1. Tyler Fugate picked up his third save. He gave up one unearned run on three hits, walked two and fanned nine over his four innings of work.

Marietta (18-5, 3-1 OAC) resumes Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) play Saturday (April 10) afternoon when it visits first place Ohio Northern University (16-3, 2-0 OAC). First pitch of the doubleheader is slated for 1 p.m. Fans can listen locally on WMOA-AM 1490. John Wharff and Mark Bradley will be on the microphones to bring you all of the action. Their broadcast can also be heard online at http://wmoa1490.com. Live, pitch-by-pitch statistics can also be tracked online at http://www.onu.edu/livestats/bb1/xlive.htm.