The Denison baseball team improved to 4-0 on the season following a 20-8 victory over Mary Hardin-Baylor on Sunday afternoon in Belton, Texas. With the win, the Big Red improves to 4-0 for the first time since 2004.

Sunday's win marks the first 20-run performance for a DU squad since scoring 26 in a 2009 victory over Earlham. The offensive output also represents the 15th time a Big Red team has scored at least 20 runs in a game dating back to the 1949 season.

Denison scored in five of its nine at-bats, scoring at least three runs in each of those five frames. In front 7-3, the Big Red broke the game open with a six-run fifth inning behind four hits and four walks. Junior Evan Flax delivered the big blow of the inning when he hit a home run to right center. Flax's first-career homer scored sophomore Sam Frazen from first.

After drawing three-consecutive walks to load the bases with no outs, sophomore Tanner Johnson drove in another run on a double-play ball hit to short. Jack Blanchard dropped a two-out single into left to score Tucker Davison. Blanchard came in to score on Eric Zmuda's third double of the game, while Noah Hahn drove in the final run on a base hit to right center.

Zmuda provided an RBI single in the seventh to score Johnson, while Blanchard touched the dish on a Frazen sacrifice fly to center. Zmuda and Hahn also scored on a base hit by Flax and a fielding error at short, respectively. Blanchard pushed the Big Red to the 20-run mark with a bases-clearing double to left center that scored Johnson, Joseph Maydwell and Brandon Morgan.

Blanchard led the Big Red's hit parade by going 6-for-7 with two doubles, five RBIs and four runs. The sophomore's six hits tied the single-game school record set by Park Smith with a 6-for-6 outing at Rhodes on March, 8 2009. Zmuda also drove in five runs and scored three more while also going 4-for-5 at the dish with three doubles. Flax, Johnson and Hahn all collected three hits on the day. Flax knocked in four runs and scored another, while Johnson totaled three runs and an RBI. Hahn finished with one double, two runs, two RBIs and two stolen bases. Senior Duncan Moran went 2-for-3 with two walks and two runs, while Davison also scored twice.

Sophomore pitcher Zack Huarte earned the win after surrendering three runs on seven hits with seven strikeouts in six innings of works. Sophomores Andrew Bruss and Cody Mauri combined for 2.1 innings out of the pen, while junior Matthew Zmuda needed just one pitch to induce a game-ending 5-4-3 double play.

Dakora Parsons went 3-for-4 with two runs and an RBI, while Cody Stone had two hits and 3 RBIs to pace the Crusader offense. Starting pitcher Connor Heussner suffered the loss after allowing four runs on five hits in just two-thirds of an inning.

Denison (4-0) continues its spring trip on Monday with a pair of games at Texas Lutheran University in Seguin, Texas. The Big Red will play the host Bulldogs at 3 pm CDT before taking on fourth-ranked Trinity (Texas) at 7 pm CDT.