GRANVILLE, Ohio (May 4, 2024) – Playing in its final two games of the regular season, the No. 3 Denison University baseball team earned wins of 9-2 and 8-1 in nonconference action over Waynesburg University on Saturday at the Big Red Baseball Field. With 35 wins, it is a new program record for wins in the regular season for the Big Red.
 
Game 1 (Denison 9, Waynesburg 2):

• Game one was delayed by one hour due to a heavy rain delay at the start of the day.
• Nick Falter (2-0) started off the game with back-to-back 1-2-3 innings and faced the minimum through three innings after a 6-4-3 double play to end the top of the third.
• Falter would finish with 5.2 innings pitched allowing three hits, one run and no walks while striking out seven batters.
• Each of Denison's first five batters in the game reached, leading to a three-run first inning for the Big Red, who also put together a three-run inning in the bottom of the fourth to take a 6-1 lead.
• Denison would score one run in each of the next three innings to salt the game away.
• Denison also outhit Waynesburg by 10 (16-6) in game one.
• Jake Welsch finished 3-for-4 with three runs batted in while Alex Vasquez was also 3-for-4.
• Jack Lutte and Eric Colaco were both 2-for-4 with two walks and two runs scored while Noah Leib was 2-for-5.
• Colin Ravin and Owen Wilson both added two RBI's.

 
Game 2 (Denison 8, Waynesburg 1):

• After leading the Big Red with three RBI's in game one, Welsch added a sacrifice fly to center field to score Colaco and make it 1-0 Denison in the first inning in game two.
• Another sacrifice fly to center field, this time by Lutte, made it 2-0 in the second inning.
• Just like Falter did in game one, Will Rettig (8-0) pitched a 1-2-3 inning in both the first and second innings.
• Rettig then got back-to-back swinging strikeouts to work around a leadoff single in the top of the third inning before tossing another 1-2-3 inning in the fourth.
• History repeated itself in the bottom of the fourth as Lutte hit his second sacrifice fly to center field of the game, but after the Big Red were unable to add to their lead in the second inning, this time Colaco followed with a huge three-run home run to left field to double Denison's lead to 6-0.
• Back-to-back RBI-singles by Cade Nowik and Vasquez made it 8-0 in the fifth inning.
• Nowik finished 3-for-3 while Colaco, Wilson and Vasquez were each 2-for-3.
• Colaco and Wilson both scored twice as well while Colaco's two hits were a triple and a three-run home run.
• After Rettig exited after four innings pitched allowing just one hit, no runs and no walks to go along with four strikeouts, Peter Lemke, Jack Rollo, George Viebrock, Ryan Starr and Michael Gray each pitched one inning the rest of the way.
• Viebrock struck out the side in a 1-2-3 top of the seventh inning, Starr pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning, and then Gray struck out the side in a 1-2-3 ninth inning.
• After striking out a combined 10 Waynesburg batters in game one, the Denison pitching staff struck out 13 batters in game two.

 
Records:

• After the first-ever meeting between the two teams last season, this season's meeting saw Denison improve to 35-5 overall this season while Waynesburg fell to 23-17.
• The North Coast Athletic Conference regular-season championship in 2024 is the fourth straight for the Big Red, who tied with Wittenberg University (24-15 overall) for first place in the conference standings at 13-3.

 
Next Up: The NCAC Tournament is scheduled to begin on Thursday, May 9, in Chillicothe, Ohio.