The Denison University baseball team picked up their first victory of the 2011 season after edging York College 5-4 in 10 innings on Saturday afternoon in Atlanta, Ga.  With the win, DU earned the Saturday split after dropping their first game of the day to Emory, 3-2.

Unlike their previous two games in Atlanta, the Big Red jumped out to an early 2-0 lead.  Junior Evan Nicholson (North Canton, Ohio/Hoover) started the bottom of the first off with a base-on-balls.  After stealing second and advancing to third on a wild pitch, the junior crossed the dish on an RBI ground out by senior Matt Forgatch (San Marino, Calif./San Marino).  Junior catcher Justin Vaske (West Chester, Ohio/Lakota West) drew the second walk of the inning with one out.  Vaske reached second via wild pitch and made it around to third on a ground out.  With two down, sophomore Tim Duxbury (Winnetka, Ill./New Trier) hit a double to center field that plated Vaske.

In the third, junior Andrew Mahle (Belle Mead, N.J./Montgomery) and Duxbury helped DU extended their lead to 4-0.  Following a one-out triple by Forgatch, Mahle dropped a base-hit bunt to third that scored the senior.  Duxbury followed with a double to the gap in left center that drove in Mahle from first.

York broke up the shutout bid with a run in the fourth, and rallied for three scores in the sixth to tie the game at 4-4.  After four scoreless frames, the Big Red finally broke through for a run in the bottom of the 10th inning.  Vaske and Mahle got things going with back-to-back one-out singles.  With two outs, sophomore Josh Butler (Oakville, Ontario, Canada/Iroquois Ride) hit a single to left field that scored pinch runner Philip Seay (Brooklyn, N.Y./Berkeley Carroll School) from second base, and gave Denison their first win of the year.

Duxbury went 3-for-5 in the nightcap with two RBIs, while sophomore Danny Kraus (Westlake, Ohio/Westlake) logged a 3-for-4 performance in his offensive outing of the season.

Junior David Holmes (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest) made his collegiate debut on the hill for the Big Red.  Holmes, who hadn't pitched since high school, allowed four runs off 10 hits with two strikeouts in 6.2 innings.  Junior Chris Fries (Cooper City, Fla./American Heritage) picked up his first win of the season after going 3.1 innings in relief.  Fries allowed just two hits and fanned two batters.

In game one, Denison spotted Emory three runs in the top half of the fourth inning.  After going seven scoreless frames, the Big Red finally dented the scoreboard in the bottom of the eighth.  Following an Emory pitching change, Butler recorded a pinch-hit single to left which plated Forgatch.  Mahle then sent a single through the right side to score Vaske from second and trim the deficit to one.  Unfortunately, DU couldn't drive in the game-tying run in the eighth or ninth innings.

Vaske paced the offense with a 2-for-3 performance, while eight other DU players logged a hit.  Kraus took the loss after pitching a gem.  The sophomore tossed five innings of two-hit baseball with seven strikeouts.  All three runs allowed by the sophomore southpaw were unearned.  Relievers Joro Forman (Coral Gables, Fla./Palmer Trinity), Evan Knoblauch (Cleveland Heights, Ohio/Cleveland Heights) and Seay combined for four innings of one-hit ball.

The Big Red (1-2) close out their Atlanta trip on Sunday (Feb. 20) when they take on Emory at 2 p.m.