For the second straight year, the Denison baseball squad is headed to the NCAA Division III Baseball Championship, commonly known as the World Series. The Big Red beat the Piedmont Lions 8-7 Saturday in Granville to win their Super Regional bracket, two games to none, and earn the return trip to Classic Auto Group Stadium in Eastlake, Ohio.

Neither game against Piedmont was easy. The opener on Friday found the Big Red behind 3-0 going to the bottom of the fifth inning. They rallied with nine straight runs to win 9-3. Saturday’s contest, originally scheduled for a morning start, was delayed until 7:00 in the evening because of rain.

In that game, Denison took a 7-1 lead in the fifth inning but it was the Lions’ turn to rally. They scored six runs coming down the stretch, including three in the ninth, but came up a run short. Jack Rollo paced the Big Red offense, going 3-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs scored. Rollo also picked up the win in relief, with Olentangy Orange alum Devin Parker earning the save, his sixth of the campaign.

The Big Red are now 45-1 on the season. The win Saturday was their 44th in a row, tying the NCAA DIII record set by Trinity College (Conn.) during its championship run in 2008. The Bantams finished 44-0. The longest streak in NCAA baseball history belongs to DII Savannah State, which won 46 straight in 2000.

The DIII Championship features two four-team brackets. Each bracket will determine a finalist in a double-elimination format. The two finalists will then play a best-of-three series for the title.

The three other teams in Denison’s bracket are: the East Texas Baptist Tigers (38-11), the Johns Hopkins (Md.) Blue Jays (38-10), and the OAC’s Baldwin Wallace Yellow Jackets (36-10). The Big Red kick off their bracket play with a game against East Texas Baptist on Friday with the first pitch slated for 1:15 p.m.

In the other bracket are: the Rowan (N.J.) Profs (38-5), the Salisbury (Md.) Seagulls (37-9), the Endicott (Mass.) Gulls (40-11), and the Adrian Bulldogs (37-12). Denison beat Baldwin Wallace twice this year, 8-0 and 13-5, and Adrian once, 15-5. The Big Red’s only loss of the season was to Salisbury, 4-1, in their second game.