CHILLICOTHE, Ohio (May 12, 2023) – The top-seeded and No. 11-ranked Denison University baseball team hit three home runs and improved to 2-0 at the 2023 North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament with a 10-4 win over the No. 2 seed, Wittenberg University, on Friday. The Big Red will now advance to the NCAC Tournament Championship game on Sunday seeking their fourth straight conference tournament title.

The Big Red struck first as they started the bottom of the first inning with a leadoff single to center field by Eric Colaco, followed by a walk to Noah Leib and a bunt single by Charlie Glennon to load the bases with nobody out.

Ari Fierer followed with a sacrifice fly to right field to score Colaco, and then Jake Welsch singled through the left side to score Leib and make it a two-run first inning for the Big Red.

After Denison left the bases loaded in the bottom of the first, Wittenberg left three runners on after scoring its first run of the game in the top of the second inning thanks to a one-out hit by pitch followed by three straight singles.

Then with two outs and Leib on first base in the bottom of the second, Glennon got ahead 2-0 in the count and smashed a no-doubter over the wall in left field to make it an early 4-1 Denison lead.

With two outs in the top of the fourth inning, back-to-back singles up the middle followed by back-to-back walks brought in a second run of the game for Wittenberg, but after Will Rettig came in to pitch, he got a first-pitch groundout to Josh Bohn at second to strand the bases loaded for the Tigers for the second time in the first four innings.

With another runner in scoring position for Wittenberg with two outs in the top of the fifth inning, Welsch made a great sliding catch in foul territory in right field to strand the 10th Tiger baserunner in the first five innings of the game.

That led to a one-out solo home run to straightaway center field by Fierer to make it 5-2 Big Red in the bottom of the fifth.

However, in the top of the sixth inning, Wittenberg got to within run one of the Big Red (5-4) after a two-run double and had the tying run just 90 feet away with one out before Fierer moved from his designated hitter spot to the mound and got a 4-6-3 double play from Bohn to Wilson to Leib to escape the inning with a one-run lead.

Denison answered the two-run double for the Tigers in the top of the sixth with a two-run double to right center field by Leib in the bottom half, and then the Big Red doubled up Wittenberg at 8-4 as a suicide steal play by Fierer allowed Leib to steal home and just beat the throw from the second baseman with two outs.

Leib later added a towering two-run home run just fair down the right field line to make it 10-4 in the bottom of the eighth inning.

Leib and Glennon are now tied for second on the team with eight home runs while Fierer is fourth with six longballs this season.

Denison had six players with two hits on Friday as Leib finished 2-for-4 with four RBI's, four runs scored, a home run, a double and a steal of home.

On the mound, Fierer picked up his first win of the season with 1.2 innings pitched without allowing a hit or a run.

For the second game in a row, George Viebrock pitched two shutout innings to finish off the contest and this time, pitched two perfect 1-2-3 innings.

It was a tightly contested battle between two teams with 30-plus win on the season as Denison improves to 33-8 overall with the win. Wittenberg, meanwhile, which had won five straight games since its sweep at the hands of the Big Red on April 29 and is receiving votes in the latest 2023 D3baseball.com/NCBWA Top 25 poll, falls to 31-9.

In the end, the difference in the game was 13 runners left on base and three errors for the Tigers compared to seven runners left on and no errors for the Big Red.

Next up, the Big Red will await to see who will join them in the NCAC Tournament Championship game starting at 11 a.m. on Sunday, May 14, with the winner earning the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Regionals.