DECATUR, Illinois— Third-seeded Denison defeated second-seeded and No. 3 ranked Webster, 8-1 on Friday night to improve to 2-0 in the NCAA Division III Regional Baseball Tournament. With the win, Denison advances to play top seed and No. 1 ranked Washington-St. Louis on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. EDT (2:30 p.m. CDT).

Denison's twin aces have come up spades for the Big Red so far. One night after Charlie Fleming opened the regional with a complete game, three-hit shutout to lead Denison past Millikin, it was Taylor Perrett's turn to take center stage.  Perrett went 6.1 innings and allowed just one earned run and two walks while striking out a career-high 10 batters. 

Perrett was helped early when Dylan Hunter blasted the second pitch of the game over the wall in left-center.  Perrett proceeded to hold the Gorlocks scoreless over the next six innings running Denison's consecutive scoreless innings streak to 15.

While Perrett was taking care of Webster, the Big Red offense was pouring on the pressure with small ball and precise execution.  Five of Denison's 12 hits were bunt singles. Denison also laid down two sacrifice bunts and scored three runs via sacrifice flies.

Seven different players logged an RBI and five players (Hunter, Brian McAuliffe, Danny Alvarez, Ty Robinson, and Max Lahn) all had two hits.

Webster starting pitcher Jordan Smevoll allowed a season-high five earned runs in 4.1 IP. He entered the game having not allowed more than two earned runs all season.

Perrett (5-2) got the win and Henry Haack worked the final 2.2 innings and allowed only one hit while striking out three.

Webster will face Transylvania on Saturday at 12 p.m. EDT (11 a.m. CDT). Denison (25-11) will play WashU (30-3) at 2:30 p.m.  The loser of the Denison-WashU game will play the winner of the Webster-Transy game at 7 p.m. EDT (6 p.m. CDT) in an elimination game.