The 2016 North Coast Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament will open on Thursday, May 12 in Chillicothe, Ohio.  Denison will square off against division rival, DePauw at 8 p.m. at VA Memorial Stadium.  In Thursday's opener, Wooster will face Ohio Wesleyan at 3 p.m.

Denison qualified for the NCAC Tournament by winning the NCAC West Division title and defeating Oberlin College in a best of three series last weekend.  The Big Red brings a 26-12 record into the tournament.

Big Red head coach Mike Deegan is in his fourth season at Denison and he is making his third trip to Chillicothe.  Denison will be seeking its first conference championship this weekend.

Denison is hitting .304 as a team and is led by second baseman Eric Zmuda who is hitting .341 with a team-high 32 RBIs.  Third baseman Noah Hahn checks in at .338 and Tanner Johnson has been red-hot of late.  He is batting .317 with a .458 on-base percentage.  Johnson was this week's NCAC Player of the Week.

The Denison pitching staff is led by three starters with a combined record of 17-5.  Perley Provost (5-2) leads the team in ERA at 2.86.  He has pitched 50.1 innings in six starts and seven relief appearances.

Zack Huarte (6-2) has made 11 starts and has four complete games while holding opponents to a .269 batting average.  Senior Ian Walsh (6-1) boasts a 3.42 ERA in eight starts with two complete games and one shutout.

Denison swept DePauw in a four-game series in Granville earlier this season.  The Tigers qualified for the tournament by defeating Allegheny in the best of three Crossover Series.  Tate Stewart leads DePauw at the plate with a .354 batting average.  Riley Futterknecht fronts the pitching staff with a 6-2 record and 2.70 ERA in 73.1 innings pitched.  On April 10 in game two of series against Denison, Futterknecht suffered a 2-1 loss to Denison, scattering five hits and one earned run while pitching all eight innings.  Provost got the win going seven strong for DU while Mikey Rivera picked up the save.

The winner of the Denison-DePauw game will play on Friday at noon in Chillicothe versus the winner of Wooster-OWU.