The Wabash baseball team remained at the top of the North Coast Athletic Conference West Division baseball standings Saturday despite losing two game to Denison University at Mud Hollow Field. The Little Giants forced extra innings in game one before dropping a 3-2 decision in the eighth. The Big Red followed with a 15-3 win in game two.
An RBI single by freshman Montana Timmons tied the game in the sixth when his drive to left fell a foot short of going out of the ballpark, but far enough to score Tanner Coggins from third. The Little Giants, however, made their second base running mistake of the game when Timmons and Holm found themselves both at second. Holm was eventually thrown out a third, erasing a chance for Wabash to take its first lead of the game.
Andrew Swart took the loss in the eighth after holding the Big Red to two runs on 11 hits after seven innings of work. Denison got to Swart for three hits in the eighth, including an RBI single by Evan Nicholson to take a 3-2 lead. Swart (right) finished the game allowing 14 hits to go with one walk and four strikeouts.
Wabash threatened to tie the game again in the eighth. John Pennington slammed a one-out double. A single by Coggins that was knocked down by the Denison shortstop forced Pennington to stay at second. After a strikeout by John Holm, Pennington and Coggins moved to second and third on a passed ball by the Big Red, putting the tying run 90 feet away from scoring. Denison walked Timmons intentionally to load the bases. Chris Deig hit a shot to the lef-center field gap, but Denison's Danny Pritz ran it down to bring the game to an end.
Denison jumped out to an early lead and never looked back in game two, leading 11-0 before Wabash would score its first run in the sixth. The Little Giants added two more runs in the seventh to account for the 15-3 final.
PJ Tyson was 4-for-6 over two games, including a double. Coggins added three hits and an RBI, while Holm also had three hits.
Despite the two losses, the Little Giants remain in first place in the NCAC West with a record of 8-3, thanks to two victories by Wittenberg (7-5) over Ohio Wesleyan (8-6). Denison tightened the race between the four teams, improving to 7-5 with the wins.
Wabash (16-17) and Denison meet again Sunday afternoon in the final two games of the doubleheader, beginning with the first pitch at 1 p.m.
Game one - Denison 3, Wabash 2 (eight innings) - box score
Game two - Denison 15, Wabash 3 - box score