Granville, Ohio- The No. 4 Denison Big Red found themselves in an abnormal doubleheader scenario in their matchup with the Battling Bishops from Ohio Wesleyan. The series was scheduled for Tuesday, with both games in Delaware, Ohio. In game one, Denison earned their 30th win of the season with a 7-1 victory. However, the sky opened as the final innings closed, soaking the OWU field. Game two was axed and moved to Denison on Wednesday, where the Big Red would hand OWU their 15th straight loss in a 13-1 decision.

Up Next: Denison will host Wittenberg on Saturday for their final NCAC action. Denison will then travel to Baldwin Wallace to makeup the canceled game from the Granville Tournament earlier this season.

Game 1 (Denison 7, OWU 1)

Five scoreless frames rattled the scoreboard before Cade Nowik drove a solo shot homer over the left field wall to spark the Denison offense in the sixth inning. Later in the inning, Jack Steel scored Jake Blozy with a double to left center, putting the Big Red up 2-0. The defense kept the Battling Bishops at bay, while Erik Sundgren tacked on another run with an RBI and Nowik added two more RBIs to his stat line. Ohio Wesleyan responded with a run of their own in the seventh inning, but it was to no avail as Sundgren and Nowik grew the lead one more RBI apiece in the top of the ninth inning. Nowik finished the day a perfect 4-4 at the plate with four RBIs.

Junior Will Rettig earned his fourth win of the season after going 6.1 innings and striking out seven batters. Michael Gray came out of the bullpen in relief, hammering 2.2 innings of work and collecting his third save of the year. The southpaw sat down three batters and allowed no runs.

 

Game 2 (Denison 13, OWU 1)

Game two of the series looked different than a typical NCAC doubleheader. Due to rain, game two was axed on Tuesday and moved to Big Red Field for field conditions. While the Big Red took the field out of their own home dugout, they were the visitor in the matchup, something that typically only happens in NCAA tournament play.

After a three-up, three-down first inning, Denison exploded for six runs in the top of the sixth inning, courtesy of RBIs from Max Fishbein, Eric Colaco, and Andrew Fazio. 

The headlining story of the night comes in the fourth inning. On a 3-1 count, Eric Colaco launched a two-run homer over the left field wall. While this is no strange feat for the senior, this ties the Denison career home run record of 30. Colaco sits one homer away from owning the home run, doubles, triples, hits, and stolen base records in Denison career history.

The rest of the game included many "firsts" for multiple Big Red players. First-year Nate Lloyd collected his first career hit while Garrett Smith recorded his first career RBI. Sophomore Kade Keown was hit by a pitch for the first time in his career.

On the bump, reigning NCAC pitcher of the week Sam Larson earned his fourth win of the season, lasting 5.0 innings. Evan Cerretani, Connor Remley, Liam Eliot, and Ryan Paganelis made appearances out of the bullpen, each going 1.0 inning apiece. This marked Cerretani and Remley's first career outing, both battling back from injuries in their time here. Additionally, they both picked up their first career strikeouts. Together, the staff mowed down eight batters and allowed just one run.