CHILLICOTHE, Ohio -- No. 16 Denison rallied from a 4-1 deficit to deal the Allegheny baseball team a 5-4 loss in the opening round of the 2019 North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Tournament at VA Memorial Stadium.

The third-seeded Gators (21-16) after a 10-7 league record, who are making their first appearance at the league's championship event since 2015, are scheduled to take on fourth-seeded Wabash in an elimination game at 7 p.m. on Thursday. The Little Giants suffered a 10-4 defeat against top-seeded Wooster in the first game of the day. Second-seeded Denison (35-6) had a short turnaround to play Wooster immediately after it played Allegheny.

The loss was the second-straight game against Denison that Allegheny suffered a defeat in the Big Red's final at-bat as Denison used three runs in the ninth inning of the second game of an NCAC doubleheader on April 6 to record an 8-7 win. On this day, however, it was a two-out single in the bottom of the eighth that broke a 4-4 tie to give Denison the victory.

An RBI double by Will Krushena in the bottom of the first gave Denison a 1-0 lead, but the next four runs came from the Gators. Tommy Cannon (Hermitage, Pa./Hickory) led off the top of the fourth with a towering blast off the scoreboard in left-center field to tie the game. With one out, Bret Kelly (Tonawanda, N.Y./Tonawanda) reached on a throwing error by the third baseman and later came in to score when the next batter, Brett Heckert (Wexford, Pa./North Allegheny), reached on an infield single that was thrown into right field by the third baseman, 2-1.

Allegheny added two more runs in the top of the fifth to extend the advantage to 4-1. Keegan Phillips (Wexford, Pa./North Allegheny) led off with a walk and stole second before Tyler Hettich (Sarver, Pa./Freeport) walked to put two on. A one-out, RBI single by Ethan Pawlak (Chardon, Ohio/Gilmour Academy) drove in Phillips and chased Denison's starter. Hettich later scored on an RBI groundout by Kelly for the final run of the game by the Gators.

Denison got a run back in the bottom of the fifth and tied the game with a pair on a two-run homer in the bottom of the sixth to set the table for the winning run to cross in the eighth.

Austin Bristol (Orchard Park, N.Y./Orchard Park) and Vincent Carone (Erie, Pa./McDowell) both recorded three hits on the day for the Gators.

Sean Kealey (Pittsburgh, Pa./Baldwin) suffered a no-decision after winning three-straight starts coming into the postseason. The junior worked the first 5.1 innings and allowed six hits and four runs with six strikeouts and two walks. Dalton Donachie (New Springfield, Ohio/Springfield Local) worked 1.0 inning of relief and allowed one hit with a strikeout and three walks, while Nolan Thompson (McMurray, Pa./Peters Township) took the loss to drop to 1-2. He saw his streak of not allowing an earned run snapped at 15.1 innings, spanning five appearances. The freshman, who entered the game with two on and one out in the seventh, induced a ground-ball double play to get out of that threat unscathed and totaled 1.2 innings with one hit, one run, one strikeout and one walk.