WAUKESHA, Wis. - Thomas Ward went 4-for-5 with two RBIs and scored a run to power a 16-hit offensive attack as the Carroll University baseball team defeated Marian University 13-6 in a nonconference game at Frame Park on Friday afternoon.
It was a single-game season-high run total for Carroll, which improved to 5-7 overall with the dominant home-field effort.
Ward, a standout 6-foot-1 junior first baseman from Waukesha, Wis., currently leads the team with a .474 batting average including 18 hits and 11 RBIs.
He has gone 8-for-10 with a home run and five RBIs over the course of the last two games for the steadily improving Pioneers.
Trevor Benz followed with three hits, two RBIs and three runs scored for Carroll, which maintained its aggressiveness on the base paths by finishing with three stolen bases. Casey Mir, Cole Haugh and Brody Ferko each contributed two hits.
The Pioneers scored four runs on three hits in the momentum-shifting bottom of the first inning. 
Joey Appino scored on an error, Ward delivered a run-scoring single to right field, Justin Baker had an RBI sacrifice flyout to left field and Benton Holly rounded out the early-inning barrage with an RBI single to left-center field.
Carroll extended its lead to 6-0 in the second as Mir successfully stole home on a perfectly executed doublesteal and Benz scored on an fielder's choice.
Benz responded with a clutch two-out, two-run single to right field as the Pioneers increased the lead to 8-0 in the third.
Carroll scored two runs in the sixth on an RBI single to left field by Haugh and RBI groundout from Evan Becker.
The Pioneers added three runs in the seventh as Ferko scored as the result of a wild pitch, Ward followed with an RBI single to left field and Benz scored on a throwing error.
The Pioneers utilized four pitchers in the contest including starter Brett Buzzelli, Brody Meyer, Josh Streu and Andy Buskohl.
Buzzelli, a 5-10 junior right-hander from Homer Glen, Ill., allowed two earned runs on five hits with six strikeouts and no walks through six complete innings.
He earned his first victory of the season to improve to 1-2 overall, finishing with 94 pitches in facing 24 batters.