Baseball unable to hold off Big Red and falls 11-6 on the road

By: Jay Garneau

GRANVILLE – The Ohio Northern baseball team dropped a non-conference tune-up game 11-6 to Denison at Big Red Field on Tuesday night.

The Polar Bears fall to 8-14 overall, while Denison improves to 9-19-1 with the win.

Senior Mark Hayes went 2-for-3 with a run scored and junior Craig Leopold struck out three batters in a scoreless inning of relief to lead the Polar Bears.

After Denison scored four runs in the first, ONU scored a pair of runs on a balk and an RBI groundout from senior Chad Coward to cut the lead to 4-2.

The Big Red added another run in the fourth before the Polar Bears cut the deficit to one run in the fifth, as senior Josh Murphy plated sophomore Brian Thomas on an RBI single and senior Eric Yunker scored on a wild pitch, making the score 5-4.

ONU took its only lead of the game in the sixth, when Hayes led off the inning with a single and eventually came around to score on a Thomas single. Yunker then hit a sacrifice fly to score Coward and give Northern a 6-5 advantage.

Polar Bear mistakes gave the advantage back to Denison in the bottom of the inning, as the Big Red scored four runs thanks to three walks, two HBPs and two walks, with the only hit of the inning being an RBI single from Kyle Colgain, taking a 9-6 lead.

Denison used a pair of extra base hits in the seventh to score two more runs and close out the scoring.

Senior starting pitcher Ryan Damman received a no decision after allowing six runs (five earned) and striking out eight over 5.1 innings, while Devon Tantari picked up the loss to fall to 0-1.

Joro Forman (1-0) earned the win in relief for Denison, while Kyle Colgain also shut the Polar Bears down, striking out five of the six batters he faced over 2.0 innings.

ONU has a quick turnaround, as the squad hosts Heidelberg in an Ohio Athletic Conference doubleheader on Wednesday at 1 p.m.