PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. (March 12, 2024) – The Denison University baseball team has continued to rise in the D3baseball.com/NCBWA Top 25 Poll in the first three weeks of the season, and now with a national ranking of No. 6, the Big Red doubled up the United States Merchant Marine Academy by a score of 10-5 during its final game at the Snowbird Classic this season.

It was the second game for Denison (9-2 overall) against the USMMA (2-5) in three days after the Big Red put up 18 runs in what was the first-ever meeting between the two teams on Sunday.

The star of the day was junior Eric Colaco, who finished 2-for-4 with three RBI's, two runs scored and two walks while also accounting for half of Denison's 10 stolen bases in the game. After swiping 70 bases in the first two years of his career and entering the game on Tuesday tied with Tanner Johnson '18 for the program record with 79 career steals, Colaco now stands in a class all by himself still with nearly two full seasons to go.

After scoring five runs in the first inning of their meeting earlier in the week, the Big Red scored four runs in the first inning this time around and then led 7-0 after an inning and a half.

Colaco led off the game in the top of the first inning with a walk, stole both second and third base, and then scored three batters later on a wild pitch. That was followed by an RBI-single up the middle by Jake Welsch, and then after a double steal by Welsch and Cade Nowik, Owen Wilson came up with a sacrifice fly to right field to score Welsch before a two-out single through the right side by Erik Sundgren scored Nowik.

Colaco scored again in the second inning after hitting a one-out single to left field and coming around to score from second base on a two-out RBI-single to center by Noah Leib, and then the hit that put the Big Red ahead for good was a two-run single to right field by Nowik to score Leib and Welsch and make it 7-0.

Merchant Marine answered back with four runs in the bottom of the second as a two-out rally starting with three straight walks led to a big inning featuring two RBI-singles and an RBI on a walk.

Colaco would add an RBI on a fielder's choice in the third inning, and then in the ninth, he hit a two-out, two-run double to right center field to round out the scoring.

Down 8-5 at the time, the Mariners threatened in the bottom of the eighth inning and got the tying run to the plate as back-to-back walks to lead off the inning were followed by a sacrifice bunt to put two runners into scoring position with just one out, but the new Big Red pitcher, Manny Nager, got a lineout double play to third base to get out of the inning.

Out of the bullpen, Jaden Cole, Ryan Starr and Nager limited the Mariners to just one hit over the final 4.1 innings of the game while Nager picked up his first-career save as well.