CHILLICOTHE, Ohio (May 12, 2022) – The No. 19 nationally-ranked and top-seeded Denison University baseball team began its quest for a third straight North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament title with a 10-5 win over fourth-seeded DePauw University in the very first game of the 2022 tournament at VA Memorial Stadium.

Despite being the lowest seed in the tournament, DePauw got off to a hot start with a two-run home run off of Trey Holland just three batters into the game.

The Big Red got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the second inning as Charlie Glennon led off with a standup triple and then scored one batter later on an RBI-groundout to first base by Noah Leib.

Leib, Denison's lone lefty in the starting lineup against DePauw's left-handed starting pitcher Will Lucas, recorded his first hit of the season against left-handed pitching with a one-out single up the middle in the bottom of the fourth inning.

That was followed by a single down the left field line by Josh Bohn, and then with two outs and the Big Red facing a 3-2 deficit, a hit by pitch by Eric Colaco loaded the bases for Dylan Hunter, who delivered a two-RBI single to center field to put Denison in front for the first time in the game.  

The Big Red would add another run in the fourth as the second hit by pitch of the inning, this time by Ari Fierer, again loaded the bases before a wild pitch scored Colaco to make it 5-3 Denison.

Denison tacked on four more runs in the fifth inning as back-to-back four-pitch walks drawn by Glennon and Leib and another wild pitch came back to bite the Tigers. After back-to-back RBI-singles by Bohn and Owen Wilson, DePauw made a change on the mound to Nathan Fackel, who walked all three batters he faced, including back-to-back RBI-walks by Hunter and Fierer.

Denison's relief pitcher Will McManaman (3-1) came in to start the fourth inning and retired the first six batters he faced before DePauw finally got to him with its second two-run home run of the game, this one with two outs in the top of the sixth inning.

McManman then got three straight groundouts in the seventh inning and finished with a line of 4.1 innings pitched allowing three hits, two runs, no walks and three strikeouts.

Entering with a runner on first base and one out in the top of the eighth, Kenny Lippman induced a strike-him-out, throw-him-out double play to end the inning before finishing off the game in the ninth.

Like McManaman, Lippman did not issue any walks as he finished with 1.2 innings of work allowing just one hit and striking out two. In all, the Big Red pitching staff struck out eight Tiger hitters while only allowing one walk on the day.

Denison improved to 31-8 overall while DePauw, which entered the tournament as one of the hottest teams in the conference with 11 wins in a row to close out the regular season, fell to 21-16. The Tigers had won 13 of their 16 games since being swept by the Big Red on April 7.

Next up, Denison will play the winner of second-seeded Wittenberg and third-seeded Wooster at 12 p.m. on Friday, May 13, with the winner earning a one-way ticket straight into the championship game.