Baseball: Ohio Northern (18-19 Overall) at Defiance (8-25 Overall)
Wednesday, May 4, 2022, 4 p.m. – Rutter Field, Defiance, Ohio
Wednesday's Preview: Ohio Northern travels to Defiance on Wednesday for its final non-conference game of the season … Northern won 17-6 over Defiance at home earlier this season on April 24 … The Polar Bears have won 5 of their last 6 games and are coming off Sunday's 11-1 home win over Oberlin … Junior Nate Webb hit 3 home runs and had 5 RBIs in the game … Webb's 3 homers were 1 short of the program record for a single game, which was set by Billy Porterfield on May 15, 1993, when he hit 4 home runs and a double in the OAC Tournament against Marietta … Junior Jacob Wenning added a home run and 2 RBIs for ONU, and sophomore Logan Stevens had a double and 3 RBIs … Sophomore Hayden Heche got the win on the mound, improving to 3-1 on the season after allowing just 1 run on 3 hits while striking out 4 over 6 innings … Through 37 games, freshman Ethan Spears leads the team in batting average (.407) and home runs (8) … Spears is tied for fifth in the OAC in home runs and is tied for seventh in batting average … Wenning leads the team in hits (53) and is second in RBIs (31) and batting average (.361) … Webb has a team-best 32 RBIs and ranks second in home runs with 7 … Senior Chayten Overholt has a team-high 32 runs scored … Senior Corey McMann ranks third on the team in batting average (.343) and second in hits (48) … Spears and freshman Joey Kennedy have a team-high 10 stolen bases … McMann has 14 doubles this season and ranks third all-time at ONU with 44 career doubles … McMann is just 2 doubles shy of tying the program record for doubles in a career, which is shared by Luke Klinehoffer and Scott Bush … McMann ranks 13th in program history with 160 career hits, and Overholt has 118 career hits, which is tied for 47th all-time … On the mound, junior Tim Knapschaefer has a team-best 61 strikeouts to go with a 3.19 ERA … Knapschaefer ranks fourth in the OAC in ERA and fifth in strikeouts … Defiance is coming off Sunday's 13-7 home loss to Heidelberg … Senior Nate Kaffenbarger became the all-time record-holder in career hits for the Yellow Jackets with 184 … Kaffenbarger has a team-high .416 batting average, 52 hits and 10 doubles … Sophomore Hunter Bostater leads the team with 22 RBIs … On the mound, senior Cohen Nies has a team-best 4.01 ERA and 62 strikeouts.
Ohio Northern Batting Leaders
| Batting Ave. | Hits | Runs | RBI | |||||||||||
| 1. | Spears | .407 | 1. | Wenning | 53 | 1. | Overholt | 32 | 1. | Webb | 32 | |||
| 2. | Wenning | .361 | 2. | McMann | 48 | 2. | Wenning | 29 | 2. | Wenning | 31 | |||
| 3. | McMann | .343 | 3. | Overholt | 45 | 3. | Webb | 28 | 3. | Spears | 27 | |||
| Stevens | 27 |
Ohio Northern Pitching Leaders
| Wins | ERA (Min. 6 Inn.) | Strikeouts | ||||||||
| 1. | Knapschaefer | 4 | 1. | Truax | 1.86 | 1. | Knapschaefer | 61 | ||
| 2. | Hutchins | 3 | 2. | Knapschaefer | 3.19 | 2. | Lawrence | 31 | ||
| Heche | 3 | 3. | Heche | 3.38 | 3. | Pitko | 28 |
All-Time Series: Ohio Northern leads the all-time series with Defiance by a 40-27-1 margin but is 13-18 against the Yellow Jackets on the road … The teams last met earlier this season on April 24 with ONU getting a 17-6 home win.
Head Coach Gene Stechschulte: Stechschulte is in his 11th season at the helm of the Ohio Northern baseball team … He has a 226-172 record, a winning percentage of .568.