Peterson, Fulkerson combine for no-hitter as Baseball opens spring break trip with split with Mount Saint Joseph

AUBURNDALE, Fla. — Junior Blake Peterson (Belle Center/Ben Logan) and sophomore Trenton Fulkerson (Huntsville/Indian Lake) combined for a no-hitter as the Ohio Northern baseball team continued its spring break trip with a doubleheader split against Mount Saint Joseph on Sunday.

MSJ won the opener 5-3 and ONU won the nightcap 8-0.

The Basics

• Records: Ohio Northern (3-3 overall), Mount Saint Joseph (4-5 overall)
• Venue: Lake Myrtle #2 - Auburndale, Fla.

Game 2 - W, 8-0

• Peterson (1-0) allowed only two base runners over 5.2 hitless innings, striking out an impressive 11 of the 19 batters he faced.
• Fulkerson came on in the bottom of the sixth and retired all four batters he faced with one strikeout to complete the no-hitter.
• Senior Logan Stevens (Plain City/Jonathan Alder) and sophomore Chase Armstrong (Louisville, Ky./Trinity) each had two hits, an RBI and two runs scored for ONU.
• Junior Elliott Veenstra (Findlay/Liberty-Benton) also had two hits and scored twice.
• The Polar Bears scored in three of the first four innings to lead 5-0. A 3-run sixth extended the lead to 8-0 to put the game out of reach.

Game 1 - L, 3-5

• The Lions built a 5-0 lead entering the bottom of the fourth inning, keyed by a 3-run third.
• The Polar Bears loaded the bases in the fourth, sixth and seventh innings, but came away empty each time.
• Northern did break through in the fifth frame, scoring three times, to pull within 5-3.
• Stevens singled home junior Joey Kennedy (Sterling Heights, Mich./Foley Catholic) to make it 5-1.
• Stevens and Armstrong then scored on a triple by freshman Kyler Lapp (Hall, Ill.) to get within 5-3.
• Stevens led the team with a 3-for-4 game on offense.

Notables

• The no-hitter is believed to be the 10th in ONU history.
• It was only the second combined no-hitter in school history and the first since May 26, 1915 when Mills and Stemm combined to blank Wittenberg 12-0.
• Ohio Northern's last no-hitter was thrown by All-American Brett Roehm in a 2-1 victory over Briar Cliff (Iowa) on March 2, 1995.
• Stevens finished the day 5-for-8 with two runs and two RBI.
• Ohio Northern is in its 119th season of baseball. The Polar Bears are 1445-1140 all-time, a winning percentage of .559.
• 13th-year head coach Gene Stechschulte is now 257-191 at Ohio Northern for a winning percentage of .574.

Up Next

• The Polar Bears will return to action on Monday when they face Illinois Tech at 9:45 am at Lake Myrtle #7.