Baseball clinches spot in OAC Tournament with 1-0, 6-1 doubleheader sweep of Mount Union on Senior Day

By Wes Mayberry

ADA — The Ohio Northern baseball team clinched a spot in the 2023 Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament on Saturday, sweeping a doubleheader with Mount Union by scores of 1-0 and 6-1 at Wander Field.

The Polar Bears improve to 25-11 overall and 12-4 in the OAC while dropping the Purple Raiders to 21-13, 9-7.

Saturday was Senior Day for the Polar Bears, and several seniors played key roles in the doubleheader sweep.

Senior Tim Knapschaefer (Maria Stein/Marion Local) got the pitching start in Game 1 and threw seven shutout innings while allowing three hits and no walks and striking out 11.

Senior Jack Hutchins (Bright, Ind./East Central) got the start on the mound in Game 2 and allowed one run on seven hits and one walk while striking out seven over seven innings to earn the win and improve to 6-2 on the season.

Knapschaefer was locked in a pitchers' duel with Mount Union's Jaired Lehman in Game 1, which was scoreless after nine innings.

In the bottom of the 10th, senior Nate Webb (Bath, Ind./Union County) led off by reaching first and advancing to second via a Raider error and was removed for freshman pinch runner Drew Gavin (Cincinnati/Anderson).

Gavin advanced to third on a flyout from freshman Chase Armstrong (Louisville, Ky./Trinity), bringing senior Vinny Sclafani (Oak Brook, Ill./Hinsdale Central) to the plate as a pinch hitter.

Sclafani delivered, hitting a fly ball to center field that was deep enough to bring Gavin home from third for the walk-off win.

Sophomore Blake Altaffer (Montpelier) pitched three innings in relief of Knapschaefer and earned the win to improve to 7-0 on the season. He gave up just one hit while striking out three.

Game 2 was scoreless until the bottom of the fifth inning when freshman Robbie Reed (Goshen, Ky./Trinity) hit an RBI single to plate Armstrong and put ONU up 1-0.

The Raiders tied the score in the top of the sixth on an RBI single from Anthony Kemer, but Webb answered with an RBI double in the bottom of the frame for a 2-1 ONU edge.

Sitting on 97 career hits, junior Logan Stevens (Plain City/Jonathan Alder) got No. 98 in emphatic fashion in the form of a three-run homer in the seventh that put Northern up 5-1. He now has seven homers on the year.

Armstrong capped the scoring with a solo shot in the eighth for his team-best eighth homer of the season.

Sophomore Vaughn Duncan (Springfield) pitched the final two innings in relief of Hutchins, giving up just two hits while striking out four.

The Polar Bears return to action on Tuesday for a game at Defiance at 4 p.m. to begin the final week of the regular season.