Wittenberg baseball: Tigers play No. 1 Denison in Springfield on Saturday

Apr. 24—The Wittenberg University baseball program has been "building up" to this moment.

Those were the words second-year coach Mitchell Griffiths used to describe the rise of the program, which reached the top 25 this season for the first time in 30 years. Wittenberg averaged 27 victories over the past five seasons after averaging 13.6 victories in five seasons before the shortened pandemic season of 2020.

Wittenberg improved to 26-6 this season with victories at Wabash College on Wednesday, April 22.

"It's been awesome," Mitchell said. "We had some key losses (on the roster), and we knew we were going to be young and inexperienced in some areas, but we still really liked the team. I think they just do such a good job of playing together and playing for each other. That's been the special thing to watch over the course of the year more than anything."

Wittenberg ranked 16th in the American Baseball Coaches Association poll this week and 19th in the D3baseball.com/National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association poll.

The top-ranked team from the North Coast Athletic Conference is No. 1 Denison (30-1), which has won a school-record 29 games in a row. It is 10-0 in the conference and leads Wittenberg (9-1) by one game entering a series this weekend at Carleton Davidson Stadium in Springfield. The teams play at noon and 3 p.m. Saturday.

Denison finished 41-7 last season and reached the Division III World Series for the first time. It has won the last six NCAC tournaments.

"It's a great opportunity," Griffiths said. "Those guys do such a good job over there. They've got great players. We really respect their coaching staff. What they built over there is really something that programs look to do, you know, and coach Dean is one of the best in the country. We're just excited for the opportunity to have them come into town and and have a ranking next to our name as well. Hopefully, we play well and show that we belong with the big guys in the country because that's our goal."

Wittenberg leads the nation with a .387 batting average. Alex Nemunaitis (.465) is the team's top hitter. That would be the fifth-highest average in school history if it holds up.

Wittenberg hit .335 as a team last season and hit 51 home runs in 41 games. It has 39 home runs in 32 games this season.

"Our big thing is we just want to be super athletic," Griffiths said. "We want to be able to have guys that can beat you in different ways, whether that's leaving the ballpark (with a home run), or, hey, we're going to hit a single, and then we've got the legs to steal second and create some pressure on the defense. We want to have that nonstop pressure, rather than just waiting around to hit the big fly. We still have the players that can hit home runs, but we've stolen more bases this year than the previous two. That's helping us be more dynamic as an offense."

Griffiths took over as interim coach in January 2025, just before the start of the season, when Brian McGee resigned after eight seasons. Griffiths spent the previous two seasons as the program's assistant head coach, recruiting coordinator, and pitching coach.

Griffiths is a 2014 graduate of Olentangy Liberty High School and a 2018 graduate of Alderson Broaddus University. He had previous coaching stops at Adrian College in Michigan and Coker College in South Carolina.

"When the job at Wittenberg opened up," Griffiths said, "my wife and I were engaged at the time and knew we wanted to get back to Ohio at some point. Her family lives in Toledo. Mine still lives in Columbus. Even being 45 minutes away in Columbus, I had never been on campus at Wittenberg. I got here, interviewed and got offered the job and knew was a really good fit. I love it here. I was able to take over last year and get the interim tag removed, and it's been a real special experience for not only me but my family as well."