Baseball rallies for 9-7 victory over No. 19 St. John Fisher (N.Y.)

By Tim Glon

AUBURNDALE, Fla. — Junior Andy Mills (Cincinnati/St. Xavier) had a 2-run single in the bottom of the seventh inning to lift Ohio Northern to a 9-7 baseball victory over No. 19-ranked St. John Fisher (N.Y.) on Monday morning in the RussMatt Invitational at Lake Myrtle Main field.

The Polar Bears improve to 2-4 on the season, while the Cardinals fall to 5-1.

Junior Michael Rocco (Orlando, Fla./Zionsville (Ind.)) went 3-for-5 with 3 RBI to join Mills, junior Will Davis (Upper Arlington/Bishop Watterson), junior Krue Thwaits (Greenville/Milton-Union) and sophomore Chayten Overholt (Delphos/Lincolnview) with multi-hit games for ONU.

Northern built a 6-0 lead by scoring twice in the bottom of the first and four more times in the bottom of the second inning.

SJFU rallied for seven unearned runs in the top of the fourth to grab a 7-6 lead.

That lead stood until the seventh when Mills plated Overholt and freshman Nate Webb (Liberty, Ind./Union County) with a two-out single to left to make it 8-7.

Rocco followed with a single to center to score Mills with an insurance run to extend the lead to 9-7.

Senior Devin Johnson (Wooster) then threw two hitless innings to pick up his first save of the season.

Junior James Fisher (Castalia/Margaretta) got the win with 3.1 innings of shutout relief to improve to 1-1 on the season.

The Polar Bears will return to action on Wednesday afternoon with a 1:30 pm contest against Muhlenberg (Pa.) at the Lake Myrtle Main field.