DAYTON, Ohio (April 20, 2023) – The No. 14 Denison University baseball team took a break from North Coast Athletic Conference action to take on Franklin College in a neutral-site contest at Wright State University's Nischwitz Stadium on Thursday night. In the end, the Big Red scored three runs in the first inning but were then held in check the rest of the way in a 13-3 defeat in eight innings to the Grizzlies.

It was a matchup featuring two teams with 20-plus wins already in the season, and it was also the first meeting between the two squads since 2008.

Denison (23-7 overall) scored quickly in the first inning as walks by Eric Colaco, Noah Leib and Ari Fierer loaded the bases with one out before a two-run single to left field by Jake Welsch.

Josh Bohn was then hit by a pitch to load the bases again before Colin Ravin hit a sacrifice fly to right field to score Fierer and make it 3-0.

Franklin (22-7), however, got a one-out solo home run to left field in the first inning, and did the same to leadoff the bottom of the third inning before a two-run shot again to left field later on in the third put the Grizzlies in front.

With two outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the fifth, the Grizzlies doubled their lead with one swing of the at as a three-run triple to left center field cleared the bases and made it a 9-3 Franklin lead.

Franklin then added three more runs in the sixth inning on a hit by pitch and back-to-back walks, all with the bases loaded, to make it 12-3.

Cade Nowik struck out the side in a 1-2-3 bottom of the seventh inning, but in the bottom of the eighth, a leadoff walk was followed by another RBI-triple to left center field for the Grizzlies to end the game.

The Big Red offense was limited to just four hits, two of which came from Leib who was 2-for-2 with two walks.

Next up, Denison returns to NCAC action at Hiram College starting at 12 p.m. on Saturday, April 22.