The Denison University baseball team improved to 5-5 on the season after sweeping Carleton College in a doubleheader at The Epicenter in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. on Thursday afternoon.  The Big Red took game one 11-1 in eight innings, and blanked the Knights 6-0 in the nightcap.

Carleton's Kiyota Gomi drove in the first run on a base hit to center field in the opening frame.  Denison answered in the bottom of the inning when Lowell Hall laced a double to the gap in right center that scored senior Matt Forgatch and sophomore Danny Kraus.

The next four and a half innings turned into a real pitchers' duel.  During that span, the two squads combined for just two hits and left four runners on base.  The Big Red broke up the mound battle in the bottom of the six when they plated five runs without registering a hit.  DU saw six consecutive hitter reach base safely when four batters earned walks and two more reached after being hit by a pitch.  Kraus plated Kyle Clemmenson with a sacrifice fly, while second-year Josh Butler scored on a double steal.

Denison tacked on four more insurance runs in the eighth to force the early stoppage.  The game-ending hit came off the back of sophomore Tim Duxbury.   Duxbury, who had struggled offensively for most of the trip, belted a two-run triple to left field.

Duxbury and Kraus both went 2-for-3 with two RBIs and a run scored.  Hall finished with one hit and three RBIs, while Forgatch scored twice and swiped two bases.  Junior David Holmes went the distance en route to his first collegiate victory.  Holmes surrendered just one run, scattered four hits and struck out three in eight innings of work.

In game two, senior Kevin Teague set the tone with a two-run double in the first.  Clemmenson increased the Big Red lead to 5-0 in the fourth frame when he hit a solo homer, the first of his career.  In the fifth inning, Justin Vaske knocked in Forgatch from third to extend the Denison lead to 6-0.  The RBI fly out was set up by Forgatch's ninth-career triple.  Tyler Vaske picked up his first win of the year.

The Big Red return to action on Friday (March 18) when they take on Claremont-Mudd-Scripps at 2:30 p.m. PDT.