The Denison baseball team had to win one game Sunday against the Kalamazoo Hornets in the double-elimination winners bracket of the NCAA DIII regionals. The first game between the two teams proved to be the only one that the Big Red would need as they rallied for a 13-12 walk-off victory to earn a spot in the Super Regional round.

Going to the bottom of the sixth inning, the Hornets led 12-4 and it looked as though they would earn a second game at Big Red Baseball Field in Granville. Denison, however, shut them down the rest of the way while scoring nine runs, including five in the ninth inning.

Two pinch hitters helped the Big Red capture the win in the final frame. Jack Steel led off the inning with a single and eventually came around to score. It was Tristan Kerr who, with two outs and runners at first and second, hit a gap shot that was officially scored a single, but drove in both runners for the win.

Eron Vega and Erik Sundgren both knocked in three runs for Denison on the afternoon. Jack Lutte had three hits, including his 16th double of the season. Lutte leads the Big Red this season in all three triple crown categories with a batting average of .464, 12 home runs, and 61 runs batted in.

Denison moves on to the Super Regionals where they will take on the #25-ranked Piedmont Lions in a best-of-three series. Piedmont is a member of the Collegiate Conference of the South and is 33-13 after winning their regional bracket hosted by Centre College in Danville, Kentucky.

The top-ranked Big Red are now 43-1 and have won 42 games in a row going back to an 8-0 over Baldwin Wallace in a tournament in Lexington, Kentucky on February 27. They won their first Super Regional match-up last season before falling in the double-elimination DIII Baseball Championship at Classic Park in Eastlake, Ohio. This year’s “World Series” is back in Eastlake from May 29 to June 4.