GRANVILLE, Ohio (January 18, 2024) – Denison University baseball enters the 2024 season ranked No. 16 in the D3baseball.com/NCBWA Preseason Top 25 Poll that was released on January 17, 2024.

Denison is coming off a 2023 campaign in which the Big Red finished 36-10 overall, earned the second most wins in a single season in program history for the second year in a row, and advanced to the regional championship game for the third year in a row. It was also the fifth consecutive NCAA Regional appearance and the second straight year hosting regionals for Denison.

The Big Red also captured the North Coast Athletic Conference Regular-Season Championship for the third straight year after finishing a prefect 16-0 in NCAC action. It was the first undefeated conference season in the NCAC since the College of Wooster in 2007, and was the first 16-0 season in conference history. Then with its 7-2 victory over Wittenberg University to wins its fourth consecutive NCAC Tournament crown, Denison joined the 2000 Ohio Wesleyan University baseball team as the only NCAC teams with an undefeated regular season and an undefeated tournament run.

Senior starting pitcher Charlie Fleming was named the NCAC Pitcher of the Year for the second time in his career, was the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) Region 7 Pitcher of the Year, and was named as a Second-Team All-American by the ABCA. Sophomore center fielder Eric Colaco, meanwhile, was named the NCAC Player of the Year, was a First-Team All-Region selection by both the ABCA and D3baseball.com, and earned Third-Team All-American honors from the ABCA to go along with a nod to the fifth-team by D3baseball.com. Fleming and Colaco were the first pair of Big Red baseball players to be named an All-American in the same season since Drew Shamrock and Adam Mandel in 2004. Entering his junior year this season, Colaco was named to the D3baseball.com Preseason All-America second-team.

In addition to Colaco, Denison will return five other all-conference players in senior first baseball Noah Leib, junior starting pitcher Nick Falter, senior shortstop Owen Wilson, senior right fielder Jake Welsch and senior pitcher George Viebrock.

The Big Red are the only team from the NCAC to appear in the top-25 of the D3baseball.com/NCBWA poll. Wittenberg, which matched up against Denison in the championship game of the NCAC Tournament last season after finishing 14-2 in the conference during the regular season, received one vote and appeared at the end of the others receiving votes category.

The new Denison baseball season will start with three games at the Greensboro Tournament (N.C.) as the Big Red take on No. 20 Christopher Newport University at 10 a.m. on Friday, February 23; No. 2 Salisbury University at 6 p.m. on Saturday, February 24; and No. 10 Corland at 11 a.m. on Sunday, February 25.

Including those three games, Denison's 2024 schedule currently features games against six fellow nationally-ranked teams, four teams ranked in the top-10, and five teams in the receiving votes category. It will be undoubtedly one of the toughest schedules in the country, if not the toughest, to start the season.
 
2024 D3baseball.com/NCBWA Preseason Top 25 Poll