CHILLICOTHE, Ohio (May 15, 2022) – In a rematch of the last two North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament Championship series, the Denison University baseball team captured the 2022 NCAC Tournament crown. After the College of Wooster took game one on Sunday by a score of 5-4, the Big Red followed with an 8-1 victory over the Fighting Scots in the winner-take-all final game as senior Kenny Lippman earned the complete game victory, and set a new Denison pitching record in the process.

With the win, Denison receives the NCAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Regionals.

The recent rivalry between Denison and Wooster has been as close as it could be in recent memory with the two teams splitting their two games during the regular season this year, sweeping each other in the other team's ballpark during the regular season last year, and then walking each other off in the first two games of the championship series last year before Denison ultimately picked up the championship win in the winner-take-all game just like it did in 2019.

Game 2 – Championship Game (Denison 8, Wooster 1)

Lippman (6-1) pitched all nine innings allowing just four hits, one run and one walk while striking out 14 Wooster batters. That broke Denison's previous single-game strikeout record of 13 set by Drew Shamrock on April 9, 2004, vs. Wabash.

Lippman retired each of the final 11 batters he faced in the game, and struck out the side in both the second and the seventh innings as he finished with five total 1-2-3 innings.

Denison jumped out to a 1-0 lead with a leadoff double to left center field in the top of the second inning by Danny Alvarez, who advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Jake Welsch and then scored on a groundout to second base by Charlie Glennon.

Then in the top of the third inning, a leadoff triple to right field by Owen Wilson ignited a string of four straight hits by the Big Red as Denison scored five runs on six hits in the frame. After RBI-singles by Eric Colaco, Dylan Hunter and Welsch, Daniel Spencer stepped up to the plate with two outs and deposited a single into right field to bring in two runs and make the score 6-0.

Wilson finished 3-for-3 in the championship game while Spencer and Alvarez were both 2-for-5.

Game 1 (Denison 4, Wooster 5)

It was a fast start for the Fighting Scots against Big Red starting pitcher Charlie Fleming in game one on Sunday as a leadoff double down the left field line was followed by an RBI-single to left field to put Wooster ahead 1-0 just two batters into the game. Then with one out and the bases loaded, a hit by pitch made it 2-0 before Fleming got a swinging strikeout and a groundout to Josh Bohn at second base to leave the bags full of Scots.
In the bottom of the third inning, Bohn, Friday's hero for the Big Red who homered twice in that game against the Scots, led off with a single through the left side. Bohn then advanced to second base on a wild pitch and scored from second two batters later on a double to left center field by Colaco to get Denison on the scoreboard.

Then one batter after that, Hunter singled to center to score Colaco and tie the game at 2-2 in the third.

In the fourth inning, Wooster's Michael Thomas led off with a hit by pitch, but then he was caught stealing by Glennon trying to take second base as Glennon tied the Big Red program record with his 16th runner caught stealing of the season.

The Big Red offense rewarded that defensive effort in the bottom of the fourth as back-to-back four-pitch walks by Welsch and Glennon to start the inning led to a pitching change for the Scots. Spencer than greeted the new Wooster pitcher, Owen Barnard, with a single to right center field to score Welsch and give Denison its first lead of the day at 3-2.

Wooster tied it back up at 3-3 with a two-out solo home run to right field by Tyler Chumita in the top of the seventh.

Denison left the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh, making it 11 Big Red runners left on base through seven innings, and then in the top of the eighth, Wooster took the lead with a one-out bloop double to shallow left field followed by a first-pitch double off the wall down the left field line.
With two outs in the top of the eighth, a single through the left side scored another run for Wooster to take a 5-3 lead.

Denison was able to get a run back to make it a one-run game in the bottom of the eighth as a two-out single up the middle by Alvarez scored Hunter from second base to make it 5-4.

Then after a 1-2-3 top of the ninth inning pitched by Jacob Pendergraft, Spencer walked with one out and stole second base to put the tying run in scoring position, but a lineout to right field followed by a groundout to first base brought forth the if-necessary game.

Colaco was the lone Big Red player with more than one hit in game one as he finished 3-for-4.

Henry Haack also did a great job pitching out of the bullpen to give the Big Red a fighting chance as he entered the game with two runners on base with one out in the second inning and quickly got a 4-6-3 double play to get out of the inning. Haack finished with 4.2 total innings on the hill while giving up only three hits, allowing no runs and no walks, and striking out four.

NCAC All-Tournament Team:

Kenny Lippman (MVP): Pitched a complete game to earn the win in the NCAC Tournament Championship game against Wooster. He allowed just four hits, one run and one walk while striking out 14 Wooster batters, which broke the Denison single-game strikeout record. Against DePauw in the first game of the tournament on Thursday, Lippman finished off the win against the Tigers by tossing 1.2 innings and allowing just one hit while not walking anybody and striking out two. In all for the tournament, Lippman compiled a 0.84 ERA in two games and 10.2 total innings, allowing just five hits, one run and one walk while accumulating 16 total punchouts.

Taylor Perrett: Pitched the first seven innings to earn the win against Wooster on Friday and send the Big Red into the championship series. Perrett allowed six hits, three runs and no walks while striking out four batters.

Charlie Glennon: Helped guide the Big Red pitching staff that pitched great all weekend long and set a new Denison single-season record with 16 runners caught stealing. Added three hits, two runs, two RBI's, a double, a triple and a stolen base, and had the first RBI of the winner-take-all-championship game.
Josh Bohn: Hit .333 on the weekend with four hits, four RBI's, four walks, two runs scored, two home runs and one stolen base. Homered twice on Friday against Wooster to help send Denison into the championship series.

Eric Colaco: Hit .438 with seven hits, five runs scored, four walks, three RBI's, three stolen bases and one double. Had the RBI-single for what would turn out to be the winning run in the winner-take-all final game vs. Wooster.

Denison moves to 33-9 on the season with nine straight wins while Wooster goes to 30-14. The NCAA will announce the 2022 NCAA Tournament field on Monday, May 16, at 12 p.m. with a live selection show airing on NCAA.com. This year's tournament will begin with 60 teams playing across 14 regional sites.