PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. (March 17, 2022) – The No. 15 Denison University baseball team dropped the final game of its Spring Break trip to the Snowbird Classic in Florida, falling 10-5 to Babson College after a six-run top of the ninth inning for the Beavers.

Babson (5-4 overall) scored first in the top of the second inning after taking advantage of a leadoff single followed by three straight wild pitches by Denison (7-2). Then after the new Big Red pitcher George Viebrock was able to get a fly out to right field to strand the bases loaded in the top of the second, the Big Red loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the second but were unable to cash in.

Then after a 1-2-3 top of the third inning featuring two swinging strikeouts for Viebrock, Denison got on the scoreboard in the bottom half of the inning as Eric Colaco led off with a single to right field, stole second base, advanced to third on a sacrifice by Payton Burch, and then scored on a double down the right field line by Ari Fierer to tie the game at 1-1.

After a two-out RBI-single for the Beavers in the top of the fifth inning, it was again Colaco who tied the game in the bottom half of the fifth as he led off with a walk and later scored on a single to right field by Noah Leib.

In the eighth inning, Babson doubled up the Big Red at 4-2 after a hit by pitch and a single followed by another wild pitch by the Big Red put two Babson runners into scoring position with one out, which was followed by a two-run double to left field.

However, after the new pitcher, Nick Falter, was able to a get a double play lineout to end the top of the eighth inning, Denison was again able to tie it in the bottom half as the leadoff man, Leib, was hit by a pitch before a single by Charlie Glennon followed by a sacrifice by Jake Welsch put two Big Red runners in scoring position with just one out.

Pinch hitter Daniel Spencer came up with an RBI-single to left field to score Leib and make it 4-3 before another pinch hitter, Matt McClements, hit a sacrifice fly to left to score Glennon and tie the game for the third time.

Tied 4-4 in the top of the ninth inning, the fifth wild pitch of the game by the Big Red pitching staff put two Babson runners into scoring position, and it came back to bite them as a two-out, two-RBI double down the left field line gave the Beavers their fourth lead of the game.

Then, four more unearned runs for Babson, including the sixth and final run of the inning on the sixth wild pitch of the game by Denison, all but put the game out of reach as the Big Red added one more run in the bottom of the ninth on a two-out RBI-double to right field by Glennon scoring Danny Alvarez.

Glennon finished 3-for-5 while Leib was 2-for-3 and Fierer was 2-for-5.

Denison will now play in its home state of Ohio for the first time during the 2022 season as they take part in a home-and-home weekend series against Case Western Reserve University. The Big Red and the Spartans will square off starting at 12 p.m. on Saturday, March 19, in Cleveland before playing at 12 p.m. in Granville on Sunday, March 20.