SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - For the third straight time to open the 2005 North Coast Athletic Conference season, it could have been better and it could have been worse for the Wittenberg Tigers. In the end, the Tigers remain very much in the hunt for the conference tournament after splitting a pair of home games with previously league-leading Denison.

Wittenberg, which rallied for a 4-1 win in the second game after dropping an 8-1 decision in the opener, is now 7-19 overall and 3-3 in the NCAC. Denison is now 15-9 overall and 5-1 in the conference.

In the opener, untimely errors were costly again for Wittenberg as Denison scored either one or two runs in every inning after the second. Freshman Taryn Hensel went the distance in the pitching circle for the Tigers, giving up 12 hits and four walks that the Big Red parlayed into eight runs, five of which were earned.

Wittenberg had chances of its own, leaving six runners on base while getting just a fourth inning run to show for five hits and one walk in the game. Sophomore Stephanie Zorn had two hits and scored the Tigers' lone run on an RBI single by sophomore Grace Wigton.

In Game 2, it was again senior Norah Gillam almost single-handedly gaining a split for the Tigers. She allowed three hits, two walks and just one earned run in tossing a complete-game victory. The key inning was the fifth - Wittenberg turned three Denison errors into a decisive three-run inning. The key hit was a single by freshman Nicole Ottavi. She drove in two runs and a third run scored on the third error of the inning.