WOOSTER, Ohio (April 13, 2024) – Coming off its first loss in North Coast Athletic Conference action over the last two seasons, the No. 2 nationally-ranked Denison University baseball team rebounded in a big way with a sweep at the College of Wooster on Saturday afternoon. In the end, the Big Red earned the sweep over the Fighting Scots with wins of 16-7 in game one and 10-6 in game two. The Big Red also finished with 35 total hits, 15 extra-base hits and four home runs in between the two games.
 
Game 1 (Denison 16, Wooster 7):

• Game one featured a combined seven home runs as after a two-run shot helped stake Wooster to a 3-0 lead after the first inning, Denison got a solo homer to right field by Jake Blozy to get on the scoreboard in the second inning.
• Then in the third inning, a solo home run down the right field line by Eric Colaco was followed by a double also down the right field line by Noah Leib. That was followed by a walk to Cade Nowik, which set up a three-run homer to right field by Jake Welsch to give Denison its first lead at 5-2.
• Denison's fourth home run of the game came on a leadoff blast to right field by Leib in the top of the seventh inning, making it 7-4 Big Red, but a three-run shot to center by Wooster in the bottom half tied it.
• Denison took back the lead in the top of the eighth inning after a leadoff double to right field by Max Fishbein, a groundball by Alex Vasquez to move the runner to third base and a sacrifice fly to left field by Jack Lutte.
• George Viebrock set the Fighting Scots down 1-2-3 with two swinging strikeouts to start the bottom of the eighth, and then Denison exploded for eight runs on six hits in the top of the ninth.
• After another double by Leib, the Big Red first scored on a wild pitch and then on a fielder's choice back to the pitcher before a double steal with two outs brought in another run to make it 10-7.
• Then after an RBI-walk by Lutte, the Big Red got three-straight RBI hits on a triple by Colaco, the third double of the game by Leib, and a double by Nowik.
• Viebrock finished with another 1-2-3 inning featuring two strikeouts in the ninth to earn his third save of the year.
• In addition to hitting four home runs, the Big Red had 10 extra-base hits.
• Leib finished 6-for-6 with four runs scored, three doubles, two RBI's and a home run.
• Nowik was 3-for-5 with two runs scored, Colaco was 2-for-6 with four RBI's and two runs scored, Lutte was 2-for-4 with two RBI's hitting from the top of the lineup, and Welsch was 2-for-6 with three RBI's.

 
Game 2 (Denison 10, Wooster 6):

• Denison scored four runs in the top of the first inning as Colaco and Leib started things off with back-to-back doubles before a sacrifice fly to right field by Max Fishbein scored Colaco for the first run. Nowik followed with a single to right field to bring in Leib and then later scored himself on a two-out single to right field by Colin Ravin.
• In the third inning, Colaco again started things off with a double and later scored on a fielder's choice by Nowik before back-to-back two-out RBI's singles into center field by Ravin and Blozy make it a 6-1 Denison lead.
• A two-out, two run home run by Wooster's Zack Barienbrock, his second home run of the day, made it 6-3 after three innings.
• The top of the fourth inning started with back-to-back hit by pitches by Colaco and Leib before an RBI-single through the left side by Fishbein scored Colaco. Two batters later, a sacrifice fly to center field by Welsch brought in Leib to make it 8-3.
• A solo home run for Wooster against Peter Lemke (5-0) in the bottom of the fourth again cut Denison's lead in half (8-4), but the Big Red made it 9-4 in the top of the fifth after a leadoff triple to left center field by Owen Wilson and an RBI-single by Colaco two batters later.
• Wilson then led off the seventh inning with a single to left field and later scored on an RBI-single through the left side by Leib to make it a 10-4 lead.
• Wooster got a two-run single against Manny Nager in the bottom of the seventh, but from there, Ryan Starr struck out the side in a 1-2-3 bottom of the eighth and got two outs to start off the bottom of the ninth before getting a foul out to end it with two runners on base.
• Starr pitched the final 2.1 innings for the Big Red and allowed just two hits, no runs and zero walks while striking out five.
• Lemke would earn the win after entering to pitch in the fourth inning and finishing with three innings pitched allowing three hits, one run, two walks and three strikeouts.
• The majority of the damage by the Big Red came from Colaco and Leib in the top-two spots of the lineup. The pair combined to go 7-for-11 with four doubles and seven runs scored as Colao led the way with a 5-for-5 effort featuring three doubles and four runs.
• Ravin was 3-for-5 with two RBI's while Fishbein and Nowik both had two hits and two RBI's as well.
• Lastly, the Big Red defense turned in three double plays during game two.

 
Records:

• No. 2 Denison moved to 22-3 overall, 7-1 in the North Coast Athletic Conference and 10-0 on the road this season while Wooster, which has given up 50 runs in its last four games, fell back to .500 overall (13-13) and 3-5 in the NCAC.

 
Next Up: Denison will return to the field tomorrow to host Case Western Reserve University for a single nonconference contest starting at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, April 14.