With the North Coast Athletic Conference season winding down, the Denison Big Red picked up a crucial 8-3 victory over The College of Wooster on Friday afternoon at Art Murray Field in Wooster. Game two of the scheduled doubleheader was postponed due to rain with no make-up date currently scheduled.

DU's victory marked their first win over the Fighting Scots since April 12, 2008 when the Big Red came away with a 6-3 decision at home. The last time Denison won at Wooster was May 4, 2003 in the semifinals of the NCAC postseason. DU took two of three games in the semifinal series.

Denison jumped out to an early lead when senior Peter Krieger plated Andrew Mahle with a one-out single to right field. Mahle reached via base-on-balls and moved into scoring position on a wild pitch. Lowell Hall kept things going with a base hit up the middle, while Justin Vaske drew a free pass to load the bases. Wooster starter Justin McDowell got out of the jam by inducing a 463 double play.

After the Fighting Scots tied the game with an RBI double by Zac Mathie in the bottom of the first, the Big Red answered with three runs in the third frame. Krieger and Hall led the inning off with back-to-back singles off reliever Steve Hagen. Following a pitching change with one out, Kyle Clemmenson cleared the bases with a two-RBI double to left center. With two outs and runners at the corners, Clemmenson scored on a ball-four wild pitch to extend the Denison lead to 4-1.

Mathie singled in Wooster's second run of the game with one out in the bottom of the third. The base hit scored Eddie Reese who led off the frame with a double. In the fourth, Krieger and Hall singled and drew a walk, respectively, with one out. The Scots' Zac Sessa struck out the first batter he faced and appeared to get out of the inning unscathed, however, the Wooster second baseman was unable to squeeze an infield pop-up which kept the inning alive. The fielding error allowed Krieger to cross the dish. Josh Butler made the Wooster defense pay for the miscue with an RBI double down the right line that scored Hall.

Butler and Tim Duxbury each drove in a run in the sixth to extend the Denison lead to 8-2. In the bottom of the inning, Michael DeBord knocked in a run on an RBI single to left. After a single to Reese and a walk to Greg Van Horn loaded the bases with two outs, Big Red starter Nick Smith struck out Mathie looking to end the inning.

Still ahead 8-3 heading into the bottom of the seventh, head coach Mike Clark sent Smith back out to the mound to close out the game. The senior found himself in a jam after Wooster loaded the bases with just one out. Smith went on to strikeout pinch hitter Matt Barnes and got DeBord to line out to the Butler for the final out of the game.

Smith went the distance for his third win of the season. He gave up two earned runs on 11 hits with a season-high tying eight strikeouts. Krieger paced the DU offense with three hits, RBI and two runs, while Clemmenson finished with two hits, two RBIs and two runs. Hall went 2-for-2 with a walk and two runs scored, while Butler had two hits, including a double, and drove in a pair.

Hagen suffered the loss in relief after surrendering two runs on two hits in 1.1 innings. McDowell got the no decision after giving up a run on two hits with three walks in an inning of work.

The Big Red improve to 16-18 overall and 8-5 in the NCAC, while the loss drops the Fighting Scots to 19-12 and 9-4 in the league. Denison returns home for a key conference doubleheader with Wabash on Saturday (April 23) at 1 p.m. Both squads are battling for one of the four spots in next weekend's NCAC Tournament.