GRANVILLE, Ohio (April 30, 2024) – The No. 3 nationally-ranked Denison University baseball team won its final two North Coast Athletic Conference games of the 2024 season, sweeping Oberlin College 14-4 in eight innings in game one and 12-2 also in eight innings in game two on Tuesday. With the two wins, Denison clinches at least a share of the NCAC regular-season championship.
 
Game 1 (Denison 14, Oberlin 4)

• Each of Denison's first three batters in the bottom of the first reached to load the bases with nobody out, and then two batters later a hit by pitch drawn by Erik Sundgren scored Eric Colaco for the first run of the game.
• Owen Wilson followed with an RBI-single to right center field to score Noah Leib and make it 2-0 Big Red after the first inning.
• In the third inning, a two-out double to right center field by Jake Welsch was followed by a standup triple over the head of the center fielder by Sundgren, making it 3-0 Big Red.
• The Big Red defense, meanwhile, turned two double plays behind Peter Lemke in the first four innings.
• Four straight two-out hits led to three more runs for Denison in the bottom of the fourth as Jack Lutte started it off with a single up the middle before a double to left field by Colaco, a triple to center by Leib and the second double of the game, this time down the left field line, by Welsch.
• Welsch's third double of the game, this time down the right field line, scored two runs and made it 9-3 Big Red in the sixth inning.
• Denison would add five more runs over the next two innings and ended the game with an RBI-double to right center field by Kuyper Lashutka in the eighth inning.
• The Big Red scored their 14 runs on 16 total hits and eight extra-base hits.
• Five Denison players had at least two hits, led by Welsch with a 3-for-4 effort featuring three doubles.
• Colaco and Alex Vasquez both scored three times.
• Lemke improved to 7-0 on the season and finished with six innings pitched allowing eight hits, three runs, one walk and three strikeouts.

 
Game 2 (Denison 12, Oberlin 2)

• After a leadoff double to left field by Sundgren in the bottom of the second, Denison would put up a six-spot and finished with four extra-base hits in the inning. The scoring started with a three-run triple down the right field line by Vasquez, followed by an RBI-double down the left field line by Lutte and an RBI-double down the right field line by Colaco.
• Colaco made a web gem level catch in the top of the third inning, running from his spot in left field to the left center field gap and leaving his feet for the great diving catch for out number one.
• Jack Rollo (4-1) struck out six while allowing just two hits and not issuing a single walk through the first five innings.
• Back-to-back doubles by Colaco and Leib to lead off the bottom of the fifth inning made it 7-0 Big Red, and then a sacrifice fly by Colin Ravin later in the inning made it 8-0.
• The clutch hits for Denison continued as Max Fishbein led off the bottom of the sixth inning with a pinch-hit triple to right center field. Fishbein would later score on a sacrifice fly to center field by Colaco, making it 9-1 Big Red.
• Denison scored three runs in the eighth inning and again ended it early with an RBI-double to right center field, this time by Ravin.
• 10 of Denison's 13 hits in game two were extra-base hits.
• Leading the way in game two was Colaco, who went 3-for-4 with two doubles and scored three runs for the second game in a row, and Leib, who finished 2-for-3 with three RBI's, two doubles and two runs scored.
• With two doubles in game two and three doubles in total on the day, Colaco takes over the lead in NCAA Division III with 23 doubles so far this season.
• Rollo finished with six innings pitched allowing four hits, one run, zero walks and seven strikeouts.

 
Records:

• With its fifth straight series sweep over Oberlin (14-22 overall, 3-11 NCAC), Denison improves to 33-5 overall and finishes 10 games above .500 (13-3) in the conference. In addition, Denison has won 30 games in three consecutive seasons for the first time in program history.
• The Big Red are the first team in the NCAC to reach 13 conference wins this season and are tied in the loss column with Wittenberg University (22-15, 11-3), which lost 13-3 in its first game in a split against third-place DePauw University (21-14, 10-4) on Tuesday.
• Wittenberg will play at fourth-place Kenyon College (21-12, 8-6) on Saturday, and a loss in one of the two games would give the Big Red the outright NCAC Championship.

 
Next Up: Denison will now host Waynesburg University at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Saturday, May 4, in its regular-season finale. Then, the NCAC Tournament is scheduled to begin on Thursday, May 9, in Chillicothe, Ohio.