Wabash and The College of Wooster combined to score 66 runs in just three baseball games against each other earlier this season. Their North Coast Athletic Conference Crossover Series rematch figures to again challenge the scoreboard operator.

"I expect high-scoring games," Wabash Coach Cory Stevens said. "You can't make mistakes to their hitters. They also challenge our hitters a lot and our guys like that, so I think we can score runs as well."

The seventh-ranked Fighting Scots (30-7, 14-2 NCAC East) won the regular season series 2-1. Last year the Little Giants (12-23, 4-12 NCAC West) won two out of three. Each of the last six games was close.

"We just seem to usually play really well against Wooster," first baseman David Oliger said. "I guess we play up to the level of competition."

The NCAC Crossover Series places the top seed from the East division against the fourth seed from the West division and the second seed from East versus the third seed from the West, and vice versa. The teams will play a best-of-three series, with each game lasting at least nine innings. The winning team advances while the losing team's season ends.

"As athletes, we don't put pressure on ourselves," Oliger said. "The more pressure you put on yourself, the less likely it is that you're going to succeed. We just go out there and act like it's business as usual."

The situation may not pressure Oliger, but the opponent might. Wooster led the nation with 334 runs in only 31 games. Oliger's first base counterpart, Jamie Lackner, leads Division III with 14 home runs.

"Lackner had an amazing weekend against us," Stevens said. "He hit three home runs – you just can't make a mistake to him. If he hits a fly ball to right and it stays in, it's a victory for our pitchers. I would almost compare him to John Holm. That's just one guy out of the entire lineup. They're going to put the ball in play hard, and our guys are just going to have to make plays."

Lackner is also hitting .366 and has a team-high 51 RBI. Third baseman Frank Vance leads the Scots with a .404 batting average. Wooster bats .339 as a team.

The video game-like offensive numbers are backed by a solid pitching staff. Ace Michael Houdek is 6-1 with a 2.50 earned-run average and strikes out nearly seven batters a game. Wooster has a 4.97 team ERA. Stevens and Oliger observed that Wooster pitchers aren't afraid to challenge hitters with some heat.

"I don't expect it to change – that's just Wooster's mentality," Oliger said. "They challenge hitters with fastballs and say 'Here it is, see if you can hit it.' That's the way it's been every year we've played them. I think that's a positive for us because we're a fastball-hitting team."

Wabash is batting .301 on the year. Lucas Stippler leads the everyday players at a .360 clip. Clint Scarborough leads the team with 33 RBI and set a single-season Little Giant record with 18 doubles. Oliger is batting .319 and has 24 RBI.

Oliger said playing a team a second time should help.

"It's always easier to go up against a team you've already played and know what they have," Oliger said. "It would be different if we were playing Oberlin or Kenyon or some team we've never seen and don't know firsthand what kind of players they have."

The Saturday double header is set to start at 12 p.m. at the College of Wooster. Sunday's game will begin at 12 p.m. as well.