SPRINGFIELD, Ohio (April 27, 2024) – In a battle between two teams vying for the North Coast Athletic Conference regular-season championship, the No. 2 nationally-ranked Denison University baseball team settled for a two-game split on the road at Wittenberg University. The Big Red lost 10-7 in game won before holding on to win 9-8 in game number two. With the split, Denison remains one game behind Wittenberg in the loss column for first place in the NCAC standings.
 
Game 1 (Denison 7, Wittenberg 10):

• Wittenberg scored in each of the first five innings of the game.
• The bottom of the first inning started with back-to-back hit by pitches before a one-out RBI-single to left field and a two-out RBI-single to center field.
• Denison got on the board with a sacrifice fly to right field by Erik Sundgren in the second inning before a two-run home run to left field in the bottom half made it a 4-2 Tigers' lead.
• Another leadoff hit by pitch led to another two-out RBI-single by Wittenberg in the third inning before two errors by the Tigers in the top of the fourth inning allowed the Big Red to put together a two-out rally and push across two runs on RBI-singles by Sundgren and Cade Nowik.
• A throwing error by Denison on what would have been out number three instead made it a 6-3 Wittenberg lead after four innings.
• In the top of the fifth inning, Eric Colaco led off with a hit by pitch and Jack Lutte followed with a walk, setting up a big three-run home run to center field by Noah Leib to tie the game at 6-6.
• Unfortunately, Wittenberg quickly snatched the lead back with a three-run fifth inning of its own that started with a leadoff double and featured two passed balls and another two-run home run by the Tigers.
• After Nowik led off the top of the sixth inning with yet another hit by pitch, Denison made its deficit 9-7 thanks to a two-out RBI-single through the left side by Lutte.
• However, after leaving the tying run on base in the sixth, Denison managed just two baserunners over the final three innings and was never really able to threaten the Tigers down the stretch.
• Lutte (2-for-4) was the lone Big Red player with two hits in game one while in addition to his three-run home run to tie the game in the fifth inning, Leib also scored two runs.
• Sundgren added two RBI's and a stolen base.
• There were nearly as many hit by pitches (5) as there were walks (6) in game one.
• Both teams left eight runners on base.

 
Game 2 (Denison 9, Wittenberg 8):

• Just like he did in game one, Sundgren got Denison on the board with a sacrifice fly in the second inning, but Wittenberg answered with a leadoff home run to right center field in the bottom half.
• A ground-rule double to left field by Colaco led off the third inning and was followed by a two-out RBI-double to center field by Owen Wilson, a hit by pitch with the bases loaded by Alex Vasquez and an RBI-walk by Sundgren to make it 4-1 Big Red.
• A two-out RBI-double by Colin Ravin in the fourth inning made it a 5-2 Denison lead before a top of the fifth inning that saw back-to-back doubles by Sundgren and Lutte, the latter of which was a two-run double to center field to make it 7-2.
• Will Rettig (7-0) pitched 1-2-3 fourth and fifth innings before another leadoff home run by Wittenberg in the bottom of the sixth. It was the fourth home run of the day by the Tigers, who would score in each of the final four innings of game two to push the Big Red to the brink at the very end.
• While Wittenberg was mashing home runs all day long, Denison continued its doubles parade with three more in the top of the seventh, starting with a leadoff double down the right field line by Sundgren, who would score on a double to right field by Colaco. Colaco then stole third and scored on a single to center by Leib to make it 9-3 Big Red.
• However, the third home run of game two for Wittenberg came in the bottom of the seventh with a two-run blast to left field as the Big Red were finally forced to move to the bullpen to try and finish things off.
• The man getting the call to try and finish it off for Denison was George Viebrock, but a sacrifice fly to center field later on in the seventh inning cut Denison's lead to three (9-6) with two innings to go.
• An unearned run in the bottom of the eighth made it 9-7 heading into the final inning, but with two outs and just one runner on for Wittenberg in the ninth, the game was not over yet.
• A single up the middle put runners at the corners and brought the winning run to the plate, and then a single to center made it a one-run game and moved the tying run to third base.
• With two outs, runners at the corners and the tying run just 90 feet away, Viebrock battled back from a 2-0 count to pitch three straight strikes and end it with a called strike three.
• 10 of Denison's 14 hits in game two were doubles, including two apiece by Sundgren, Lutte, Colaco and Jake Welsch.
• There were eight hit by pitches and eight walks in game two, including five hit by pitches by the Tigers' pitching staff.
• Denison left 15 runners on base while Wittenberg left nine.

 
Records:

• No. 2 nationally-ranked Denison moves to 31-5 overall and 11-3 in the NCAC while Wittenberg moves to 21-13 and 10-2.
• Denison's game-one loss was its first loss at home this season (11-0 to start) while the game-two loss for Wittenberg was the end of its 12-game winning streak.

 
Next Up: Denison will play in its final NCAC series of the season as the Big Red host Oberlin College starting at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, April 30. Wittenberg will have two more conference series this week, including a matchup against third-place DePauw University also on Tuesday.