AUBURNDALE, Fla. (March 15, 2023) – After playing its first five games in Florida at the Snowbird Baseball Classic, the No. 13 Denison University baseball team turned its attention to the RussMatt Central Florida Baseball Invitational and a matchup against Farmingdale State College for the final game of its Spring Break trip. Playing against the Rams, the Big Red finished with a 6-2 win after allowing only five hits as a team.

Noah Leib led off the top of the fourth inning with a home run to right field to start the scoring.

Denison's starting pitcher, Will Rettig, limited the Rams to three hits, no runs and no walks while striking out four over his five innings pitched, but then after a 1-2-3 top of the sixth inning pitched by Patrick Neenan, Farmingdale got a leadoff single to right field followed by a triple to center field to tie the game at 1-1 in the seventh.

With one out and a pitching change at the mound to George Viebrock (3-0), the Rams opted for the squeeze bunt play to try and bring in the go-ahead run, and it paid off to make it 2-1 Farmingdale through six and a half innings.

In the top of the eighth inning, Leib led off with a walk and was followed by a single through the left side by Jake Welsch.

A wild pitch moved both runners into scoring position, but after a pop up to first base and then an intentional walk to Kuyper Lashutka to load the bases with one out, a swinging strikeout set the stage for Owen Wilson with two outs.

Wilson was up to the task and singled to short to bring in Leib and tie the game at 2-2.

The big blow from the Big Red then came from Erik Sundgren, who deposited a double to left center field to clear the bases and make it 5-2 Denison.

After issuing two walks in the bottom of the eighth inning, Viebrock got a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning, and then Denison added an insurance run on a wild pitch with the bases loaded and two outs in the top of the ninth.

Nick Falter then came in to pitch the bottom of the ninth and got a swinging strikeout for out number one, a groundout to short for out number two, and a flyout to right field for the final out.

In all, the Big Red pitching staff only allowed five hits and two walks while striking out seven.

At the plate, Sundgren was 2-for-5, including his three-run double, and Leib was 2-for-4 with two runs scored and a home run.

Denison improves to 8-3 on the season while Farmingdale State moves to 4-6. It was the first game between the two teams since the Big Red went 1-1 against the Rams in in Port Charlotte, Florida, back in 2015.