Baseball
Baseball: W&J hands Big Red a pair of defeats
Date: April 16, 2008
Location: GRANVILLE
Washington & Jefferson's pitching staff kept the Denison bats quiet and racked up 27 hits in a doubleheader sweep on Wednesday night at Big Red Field. W&J took game one 13-3 and held off DU for a 7-6 win in the nightcap.
Presidents designated hitter Mark Baker was 3-for-5 with two runs scored and two doubles in the opener. Ian Poole started and earned the victory while Denison starter Park Smith (Warren, N.J./The Pingry School) was charged with the loss. Sophomore catcher Dave McGinnis (Columbus, Ohio/Dublin Scioto) was 1-for-1 with three RBIs and a walk.
Washington & Jefferson wasted little time in game two, jumping out to a 5-0 lead after two innings. Denison would battle back with a three-run sixth inning to cut the deficit to one. The inning was powered by three W&J errors and RBI singles by Andy Johnson (Cincinnati, Ohio/Sycamore) and Danny Pritz (Wilmette, Ill./New Trier).
Aidan Lucas (Evanston, Ill./Evanston Twp.) was tagged with the loss. He started the game and pitched the opening two innings. James Clear (Hamilton, Ohio/Badin) and JD Wyborny (Walnut Creek, Calif./Monte Vista) combined for 2.1 innings of scoreless relief to close out the game.
Denison is 19-12 on the year and will gear up for a critical four-game series with North Coast Athletic Conference divisional foe, Earlham College on April 19-20. A sweep by the Big Red could secure a West Division championship and home field advantage in the NCAC Tournament.