ADRIAN, Mich. (March 15, 2024) – The No. 6 Denison University baseball team started off the Adrian Tournament with a 7-1 win over No. 3 nationally-ranked Baldwin Wallace University on Friday evening.

Denison (10-2 overall) has now defeated Baldwin Wallace (10-3) during the regular season in each of the last three years despite falling twice to the Yellow Jackets during the Granville Regional last season, including a loss in the regional championship game. BWU is coming off a Regional Championship, Super Regional Championship, and a National Semifinals appearance in the program's third trip to the Division III World Series last season.

In this meeting, Will Rettig improved to 3-0 on the season and was brilliant, pitching seven innings allowing just five hits and three walks to go along with no runs allowed as well.

Offensively for Denison, Owen Wilson was 3-for-4 with three runs scored while Eric Colaco was 2-for-3 with three runs batted in.

The Big Red scored in the bottom of the first inning after back-to-back two-out walks by Jake Welsch and Noah Leib were followed by an RBI-single to center field by Cade Nowik to score Welsch.

Then in the second inning and after a leadoff double to left field by Wilson, Denison got another two-out RBI-knock as Colaco singled to left to make it 2-0.

BWU threatened to get onto the scoreboard in the top of the fifth inning when back-to-back singles to start the inning were followed by a sacrifice bunt to put two runners into scoring position with one out.

Rettig, however, was not phased and got a flyout to right field followed by a groundout to short to get out of the inning, and then Denison did not waste its opportunity with two runners in scoring position with one out in the bottom half of the inning as the Big Red scored four runs with the final two tallies coming on a two-run double to right center by Colaco.

Nate Dinges came in to pitch to start off the top of the eighth inning, and after a walk and a hit by pitch to get things started, he would ultimately get a 6-4-3 double play to get out of the inning and keep the Yellow Jackets off the scoreboard until the final inning.

Day two of the Adrian Tournament will pit the Big Red against North Central College starting at 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 16. Denison has already defeated NCC this season after scoring eight runs in the eighth inning to pull out a 15-7 comeback victory during its first game at the Derby City Classic.