Denison opened their North Coast Athletic Conference West Division series with the Wittenberg Tigers with a doubleheader sweep from Carleton-Davidson Stadium. Denison won game one, 6-3 and came from behind for a 11-8 victory in game two.
In the opener, the Big Red jumped on the Tigers early thanks to a five-run second inning. In that pivotal inning, the Big Red got RBI hits by Kevin Teague (Fairfax Station, Va./St. Stephen's and St. Agnes) and Alex Horn (Centerville, Ohio/Centerville) before Evan Nicholson (North Canton, Ohio/Hoover) delivered the game's biggest hit with with a bases loaded triple to the gap in right center field that scored Danny Pritz (Wilmette, Ill./New Trier), Zach Huttie (Cary, N.C./Athens Drive) and Horn.
Senior starting pitcher Park Smith (Warren, N.J./The Pingry School) mowed down the Tigers in the first three innings but ran into a little trouble in the fourth when Grant Goodwin and Matt Hampp stroked back-to-back doubles. Hampp's double would score Goodwin and a sacrifice fly by Kory Winter would plate Hampp. Before the final out could be recorded, Smith surrendered a triple to Nick Van Dyne to cut the DU lead to 5-3 heading into the fifth.
In the Tiger half of the fifth inning Hunter Sorensen (Houston, Texas/Memorial) came in relief of Smith and turned in a perfect inning, facing just three batters. The Denison offense would add another run in the seventh thanks to a sacrifice fly by Horn and junior right-hander Dale McOsker (Loveland, Ohio/Loveland) worked the final two innings, allowing only one hit and one walk to earn his first career save. Smith picked up the win to improve to 3-0 on the year. Teague led all Big Red hitters at the plate in game one, going 3-for-4 with one RBI and one run scored. Huttie was 2-for-4 with a run scored and Nicholson led the way with three RBIs.
In game two, the Big Red pounded out 14 hits and scored nine of their 11 runs in the final three innings to pull of the sweep. Trailing 5-2 in the fifth inning, Justin Vaske (West Chester, Ohio/Lakota West) gave Denison their first lead with a three-run homer to right field.
Five players would have multi-hit games in the nightcap. Huttie was 2-for-3 with two RBIs and Vaske also went 2-for-3 with three RBIs and two runs scored. The win went to Freddy Marino (Shaker Heights, Ohio/University School) in relief. The junior took over for starter Nick Smith (Mirror Lake, N.H./Holderness) in the third inning and worked 2.2 innings allowing one earned run off three hits.
Denison will resume their four-game series with the Tigers on Saturday at 12 p.m. from Carleton-Davidson Stadium in Springfield, Ohio.
