Springfield, Ohio. - The #2 DePauw Tigers dropped their first match up in the North Coast Athletic Conference tournament to #3 Denison, 10-1 (5 innings). With the losses, the Tigers slipped to 24-15 on the season and tallied their first loss of the double-elimination conference tournament.
Alex Romero-Salas started on a strong note in the circle for the Tigers, striking out the first batter of the game and returning from being down in the count. Big Red found their groove tallying a walk, single, and hit by pitch to all be driven home by Brooke Surbaugh's grand slam home run to left center field. With a 4-0 lead, Denison ended the top of the first with a pop up and strike out.
Tiger came in swinging with two consecutive fly outs to the outfield. Eliza Rammel claimed the Tigers first hit of the day with a single to left field. The inning was capped with a strike out swinging.
Entering the second, the Tigers held Big Red to one run. Rammel caught a runner stealing second and Avery Welsh made a diving reach at shortstop to stop a hard hit grounder from exiting in the infield, and proceeded to throw the batter out from her knees for the force out at first. Walsh recorded the third out in the inning.
In the batter box, Romero-Salas led off with a single to left field, Brady followed up with a single in the same direction, and Hanna Coffel reached on a fielder's choice. Ella Ohrvall walked to load the bases for the Tigers. Senior Emily DuMais reached on a fielder's choice to drive home Paige Brady for the Tigers' only run of the game. Inning concluded with a force out at third for Ohrvall.
The Big Red piqued in the top of third with five runs to lengthen their lead 10-1. An error at the beginning of the inning left most runs unearned. Romero-Salas was relieved by Avery Welsh in the circle, to close out the inning with a fly out to left field.
Tigers fought back in the bottom of the third; Kelsey Schneider singled to left field but the following three batters led to outs.
DePauw's best inning defensively was the top of the 4th, with two pop ups and a strike out looking for Walsh. Tigers proceeded to go three up, three down in the batter box.
In the fifth, Big Red filled the bases before Indy Workman hit a fly ball out to right field. Libby Minobe caught the hit, threw to first for the out, and then to second for the three out play to end the inning before Denison could score.
To wrap up the game, Tigers went 0-3 at the plate with a foul out, pop up, and ground out.
Alex Romero-Salas dropped to 12-9 with the loss, while Madilyn Moffitt improved to 10-8 in the circle.
Five different Tigers collected one hit each, while Brooke Surbaugh had two of the Big Reds' six hits, including the grand slam.
DePauw returns to take on the loser of game two of the NCAC Tournament on Thursday, May 7th at 5:30 p.m.
