On a cold day in Granville, the Denison University baseball team opened the home portion of their schedule with a 7-4 victory over fourth-ranked Marietta College on Thursday afternoon.  The Big Red improve to 8-8 on the year, while the Pioneers fall to 13-2.

The win over Marietta was Denison's third dating back to the 1954 season, and first since 2008.  On that day (April 2), DU edged the Pioneers 8-7 in Granville.

After spotting Marietta a pair of runs in the opening two innings, the Denison offense came alive in the bottom half of the second.  In that frame, DU saw their first two hitters reach safely via base-on-balls.  After a fielder's choice by Peter Krieger put runners at the corners, a throwing error by pitcher Mark Williams allowed sophomore Danny Kraus to cross the dish.  A walk to catcher Justin Vaske and a base hit by Tim Duxbury loaded the bases for junior center fielder Tyler Nicholson.  With two outs, Nicholson cleared the bases with a double down the right field line.  The three-run hit put the Big Red on top 4-2 after two frames.

The other piece to the puzzle was the impressive performance by senior pitcher Dale McOsker.  After surrendering two runs on five hits in the first two innings, the right-hander went into shutdown mode as he scattered just three hits over the next four frames.  In the third, McOsker got into a jam as he saw the game-tying run move into scoring position with two outs.  The Loveland native escaped the dangerous situation by getting Aaron Hopper to line out to second baseman Evan Nicholson.

Denison added an insurance run in the fourth thanks to a throwing error by the Marietta defense.  The Pioneers threatened again in the fifth, but McOsker induced back-to-back fielder's choice outs to shortstop Josh Butler to get out of the jam.  The senior end his day by striking out Jordan Grilliot in the sixth.

Marietta trimmed the deficit to one with a run in both the seventh and eighth innings.  In the bottom of the eighth, Duxbury led off with a walk and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Butler.  After a dropped pop up put runners at first and second, a two-out single by senior Matt Forgatch scored Duxbury from second.  The second run crossed when Kraus reached on a fielding error.

With a three-run lead in the top of ninth, head coach Mike Clark handed the ball to Duxbury.  In just his third-career appearance, the sophomore gave up a leadoff single to Kirby Becker.  However, that base runner was quickly erased when the DU defense turned a 463 double play.  Duxbury secured his first-collegiate save when he struck out Niko Stanislav looking.

McOsker picked up his first win of the season after scattering eight hits, giving up two runs and striking out five in six innings.  Tyler Nicholson, Forgatch and Duxbury paced the DU attack with two hits each.  Nicholson had a double, three RBIs and a run scored, while Duxbury scored three times.  Defensively, the Nicholson twins were involved in 14 of DU's 27 putouts, while Vaske threw out three base runners.

Williams suffered the loss after surrendering four runs on three hits with three walks in three frames.  Reliever Austin Blaski gave up one run on five hits with 5 Ks in four innings, while closer Kyle Lindquist gave up two unearned runs in the eighth.  Becker and Britt Meador each had three hits to spark the Pioneer offense.

Denison opens North Coast Athletic Conference play this weekend with a doubleheader against Hiram College.  First pitch from Granville is slated for 1 p.m.