PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. (Mar. 12, 2023) - Facing No. 11 Denison University for the second time already this season, the North Central College baseball team avenged an earlier loss to the Big Red by winning 5-4 on Sunday morning in the second game of the Snowbird Baseball Classic.

Starting pitcher Ryan Behling kept the Big Red scoreless over the first six innings of play as Denison did not have a player in scoring position during that time. Catcher Michael Davis threw out all three runners trying to steal second base over the first six innings. 

The Cardinals pushed the first run of the game across the board in the bottom of the fifth inning. Joe Hamilton led off with a bunt single and advanced to second on a Denison error. Dom Listi doubled down the left field line to score Hamilton and give North Central a 1-0 advantage.

The next inning, Luke Lehnen was hit by the pitch before Hamilton walked. After Nolan King advanced the runners, John Michael Scumaci tripled to right center, plating Lehnen and Hamilton as the Cardinals extended the lead to 3-0. After the Big Red made a pitching change, Scumaci scored on a wild pitch to add an insurance run for North Central.

Denison answered in the seventh as they took advantage of a Cardinals' error, scoring two runs. In the eighth, the Big Red tied the game up at 4-4 with two more runs, but Nolan Shannon was able to limit the damage as the game stayed even entering the ninth inning. With two outs in the inning, Listi doubled to right field to begin the two-out rally. Rob Marinec was intentionally walked for the second time in the game. Justin Rios stepped up to the plate and delivered an RBI single to right field to put North Central on top, 5-4.

Shannon sat down the three batters he saw in the ninth inning to claim his third win of the season and second in as many days. 

Behling threw 6.2 innings, allowing two runs and zero earned runs on the day while striking out four. Listi tallied three hits, one run, and one RBI on the day while Marinec recorded a hit with three walks. Hamilton scored two runs while Scumaci totaled two runs batted in.

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