What a difference a weekend can make. The Denison Big Red opened their four-game series on Saturday with Wabash College, losers of four-straight and stuck in a tie for third-place in the North Coast Athletic Conference West Division at 5-5.
Only the top two teams out of the five-team division advance to the conference's postseason tournament and up until this weekend Denison's chances looked bleak. All of that has changed following Sunday's doubleheader sweep of the Little Giants which completed a four-game series sweep, vaulting the Big Red into first-place in the NCAC West.
Denison currently sits at 9-5 with two games left against Earlham College this Wednesday. Wittenberg and Wabash are tied for second at 8-6 and have two games remaining against each other on Wednesday. Ohio Wesleyan has completed their conference schedule at 9-7 and Earlham sits in fifth at 2-12. One victory versus Earlham would clinch a tournament appearance and two wins would clinch the West Division crown.
On Sunday, Denison got two more outstanding pitching performances and the offense gave the staff early leads to work with, resulting in a 7-4 win in game one, and an 8-2 victory in game two.
Mike Clark handed senior left-hander Park Smith (Warren, N.J./The Pingry School) the ball in game one and he held Wabash to two earned runs over 4.2 innings pitched. In the top of the fourth inning in a scoreless game, DU scored five times with three of those runs coming off a bases loaded triple by Matt Forgatch (San Marino, Calif./San Marino) that scored Danny Kraus (Westlake, Ohio/Westlake), Danny Pritz (Wilmette, Ill./New Trier) and Zach Huttie (Cary, N.C./Athens Drive).
On Saturday, Tim Duxbury (Winnetka, Ill./New Trier) became the second Denison player to hit three triples in a single game. Forgatch must have been a little envious of his teammate's accomplishment because in the sixth inning the junior would triple again, this time scoring pinch runner Andrew Touhy (Wilmette, Ill./Loyola Academy). Forgatch would not get another at-bat in the game and would have to settle for his pair of three baggers.
The Denison bullpen worked the final 2.1 innings allowing two earned runs off just one hit and Smith would be awarded the victory, moving his record to 4-1 on the year.
In game two, Denison roughed up Wabash starter Eric Foust for five earned runs in 1.1 innings pitched and found themselves with a 6-1 lead after three innings. They would tack on two more runs in the seventh inning off RBI singles by Smith and Pritz.
Big Red starter Nick Smith (Mirror Lake, N.H./Holderness School) pitched five innings, allowing just two runs off six hits with three strikeouts. Bob Giarratani (Winthrop, Mass./Bishop Fenwick) pitched two scoreless innings to close out the sweep.
On the day, Huttie led all hitters by going 4-for-6 with two doubles and one RBI. For the weekend, Huttie hit .727 (8-for-11) with four doubles, four RBIs and three runs scored. His big weekend at the plate raised his season batting average 59 points to .326.
Forgatch was 3-for-6 with five RBIs and the two triples mentioned earlier, and after pitching the gem in game one, Park Smith was 3-for-4 with two runs scored in the night cap.
Denison improves to 19-15 overall and 9-5 in the conference with the victories. Wabash drops to 16-19 and 8-6. The Big Red will take aim at the program's fourth West Division title on Wednesday (April 21) when they host Earlham in a doubleheader beginning at 5 p.m.
