ONU clinches spot in OAC Tourney with sweep over B-W 5-3 and 5-4

April 23, 2008

By Steven Wright

ADA — The Ohio Northern softball team swept Baldwin-Wallace, winning Game 1 5-3 and Game 2 in come-from-behind fashion 5-4 to earn a spot in the Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament Wednesday evening at the Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds.

The Polar Bears are now 23-11 overall and 12-4 in the OAC, while the Yellow Jackets fall to 14-22, 3-13.

Down 4-3 in the top of the seventh of Game 2, Danielle Goubeaux hit a go-ahead two-run home run, her second seventh inning game-winning homer in the last five days.

Goubeaux also hit a seventh inning home run last Saturday at Mount Union that proved to win the game for the Polar Bears.

Ohio Northern entered the top of the seventh down 4-2 before Liz Decima drew a one-out walk to begin the rally.

Matti McFarlin promptly hit a triple to score Decima and later scored herself on Goubeaux’s long ball.

ONU was tied 2-2 with B-W through three innings on a second-inning RBI single from Abby Majoy and an RBI single from Decima in the third inning.

The Yellow Jackets scored twice in the bottom of the sixth before the seventh inning heroics by Northern.

In Game 1, Northern never trailed, scoring one run in the first inning and four runs in the fourth inning.

McFarlin knocked in Tina Mangola with a double to begin the scoring in the first inning.

In the fourth inning, Goubeaux and Cortney Cash each singled and Majoy walked to load the bases for Lisa Goltry.

Goltry hit a sacrifice fly to score the first run of the inning, and Mandi Fought followed with a single to drive in two more runs.

Fought was able to steal second and advance to third on a wild pitch before she came around to score when Mangola reached on an error.

On the day, Goubeaux led the Polar Bears, going 5-for-7 at the plate with the home run, two RBIs and two runs scored.

McFarlin went 4-for-8 in the doubleheader, giving her 98 career hits and putting her only two hits away from becoming the third Polar Bear to join ONU’s 100-hit club this season.

Cash picked up the Game 1 victory, improving her record to 11-6, while Stephanie Inkrott (11-5) won Game 2 in relief for the Polar Bears.

Fought, Decima and Cash all recorded three hits on the evening.

Northern will host Capital on Saturday to wrap up OAC regular season action at 3:30 pm at the ONU Softball Field.