Senior Corey McMann leads Baseball to 8-4 win at Bluffton

By Wes Mayberry

BLUFFTON — Senior Corey McMann (Flower Mound, Tex./Liberty Christian) tallied three hits and three RBIs to lead the Ohio Northern baseball team to an 8-4 victory on Thursday at Memorial Field.

The Polar Bears improve to 16-18 on the season while the Beavers fall to 16-19.

One of McMann's three hits on the day was a 2-RBI double that gave Northern an early lead in the top of the first inning after sophomore Dakota Durick (New Castle, Ind.) was hit by a pitch and advanced to second on a single from sophomore Logan Stevens (Plain City/Jonathan Alder).

McMann scored both Durick and Stevens, putting ONU up 2-0.

The Beavers tied the score with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth, but Northern retook the lead in the fifth when freshman Hunter Kauser (Paulding/Exempted Village) came home on a Bluffton error that allowed McMann to reach base.

BU took a 4-3 lead with a two-run fifth inning but went scoreless the rest of the game.

Durick came home on a passed ball in the top of the seventh, and the Polar Bears capped the scoring with four runs in the eighth on RBI singles from freshman Ethan Spears (Oregon/Clay), senior Sam Zeleznik (Hinckley/Highland), Durick and McMann.

Durick and Spears both notched two hits in the game, joining McMann with multiple hits.

Durick finished with a team-high three runs scored.

Junior Jack Hutchins (Bright, Ind./East Central) got the win on the mound, pitching 2.2 innings and allowing just one hit and striking out two in relief of senior starter Tom Pitko (Youngstown/Austintown-Fitch).

Hutchins is now 3-1 on the season.

The Polar Bears return to action on Saturday for a doubleheader at Ohio Athletic Conference foe Heidelberg starting at 1 p.m.