CLEVELAND, OH – Wittenberg and Denison each earned a share of the 2024 North Coast Athletic Conference baseball championship after posting identical 13-3 NCAC records, marking the first time that the NCAC has had co-champions in the sport since Allegheny and Wooster shared the very first North Coast championship in 1985. The Tigers earn their first conference baseball title, while the Big Red take home their fourth straight, and fourth overall. Wooster leads all teams with 19 championships, followed by Ohio Wesleyan with 10 and Allegheny with three. DePauw, Oberlin and Wabash each own one NCAC baseball crown.
Wittenberg enters the 2024 NCAC Baseball Tournament, which will be played this weekend, May 9-12, at VA Memorial Stadium in Chillicothe, Ohio, as the top seed after taking a tiebreaker over Denison. The Tigers open play on Thursday against fourth seeded Kenyon (8-8) at 12:00 p.m. The Owls won the tiebreaker over Wabash (8-8) to claim the final berth in the four-team field.
Second-seeded Denison will also open play in the tournament on Thursday, at 3:30 p.m. against third-seeded DePauw (12-4).
The double-elimination tournament continues into Friday afternoon with the winners of the first two contests squaring off at 10:00 a.m. with a slot in the championship round on the line, while the losers of the first two games will meet at 1:30 p.m. Friday afternoon in an elimination game.
The final slot in the championship round will be determined Friday evening at 5:00 p.m. with the winner of the elimination game taking on the loser of game three. The first championship game will be played either Saturday or Sunday at 11:00 a.m. with game seven set for 30 minutes following the conclusion of game six, if necessary. Should any team involved in the championship game(s) have a graduation set for Saturday, the games will be moved to Sunday.
Wooster leads the league with 13 NCAC baseball tournament titles, Ohio Wesleyan has captured eight tournament crowns, and Denison owns four. Allegheny has earned three tourney titles while Wabash has earned two; DePauw and Oberlin have one tournament title apiece. Kenyon and Wittenberg are on the hunt for their first NCAC Tournament titles.