Baseball keeps OAC Regular Season title hopes alive with double header sweep at Heidelberg

TIFFIN — Ohio Northern kept its Ohio Athletic Conference Regular Season title hopes alive with an 8-4, 12-9 sweep at Heidelberg on a very rainy and wet Saturday afternoon.

The Basics

• Records: Ohio Northern (27-10, 13-3 OAC Overall), Heidelberg (15-25 Overall, 6-12 OAC).
• Venue: Hoernemann Stadium - Tiffin, Ohio.

Game One, W 8-4

• The Polar Bears got going early behind 2-RBI single by sophomore Evan Russ (Westfield, Ind./Westfield) in the top of the third.
• In the 4th sophomore Zane Pratt (Piqua) notched an RBI when he grounded out to first base and scored junior Robbie Reed (Goshen, Ky./Trinity).
• Reed Scored again in the 6th and put Ohio Northern up 4-0. 
• Heidelberg wouldn't go quietly, as they rung up 4 runs of their own in the bottom half of the 6th to tie the game.
• Northern's offense once again answered the call in the 7th, which was kick started by an RBI single by Russ.
• Senior Andrew Stechschulte (Findlay) ripped an RBI single to make it 6-4.
• Reed and Pratt each notched RBIs in the inning as well to wrap up a 4-run 7th enabling ONU to regain the lead at 8-4. 
• Senior Joe Tootle  (Powell/Olentangy Liberty) started on the mound for the Polar Bears and tossed 5.2 innings allowing only 2 earned runs on the day.
• Senior Blake Altaffer (Monteplier) secured the win for the Polar Bears pitching the final 3.1 innings and allowing no runs. 

Game Two, W 12-9

• Northern's offense posted 11 total runs in the 6th and 7th innings.
• Heidelberg drew first blood in game 2 when they scored two runs early, with one in the 1st and another in the 3rd to make it 2-0.
• They wouldn't stop there as they added on 4 more runs in the 4th. 
• Ohio Northern would not go quietly, as they chipped away with a run in the 5th when senior Elliott Veenstra (Findlay/Liberty-Benton) hit a single and after a throwing error Pratt managed to score.
• The Polar Bears kept clawing back in the 6th when they posted 4 runs of their own. 
• Senior Sam Sells (Lewis Center/Olentangy Orange) knocked in two of the four with a 2-RBI single.
• Pratt added two more with an 2-RBI single of his own to make it 6-5 in favor of Heidelberg.
• Sophomore Kyler Lapp (Hall, Ill./Hall) completed the rally for ONU with a 2-RBI single of his own in the 7th.
• Reed added a 2-RBI single of his own to build the lead for Northern.
• Pratt continued his impressive day at the plate with an RBI double.
• A wild pitch allowed Reed to come home and made it 11-6.
• Veenstra notched another RBI single to score Pratt which capped off a 7-run 7th inning. 
• The Student Princes struck back with a run in the bottom of the 7th.
• Heidlebrg added a pair in the bottom of the 9th, but would not be able to secure anymore.
• Sophmore Matt Serdinak (Sagamore Hills/Walsh Jesuit)picked up the win for the Polar Bears.

Notables

• The Polar Bears kept their OAC Regular Season title hopes in tact with the sweep.
• ONU is one game behind Mount Union in the standings and would clinch the title and the No. 1 seed in next week's OAC Tournament if Mount Union falls twice to Capital this weekend.
• Pratt, Veenstra and Lapp all led the team with 3 hits on the day.
• Pratt had a team high 5 RBIs on the day as well.
• Ohio Northern now leads the all-time series with Heidelberg by 93-68 margin.
• Through 37 games this season, Veenstra leads the Polar Bears with a .373 batting average, going 35-for-97 with 26 RBI.
• Armstrong has six home runs and a team-best 37 RBI.
• Altaffer is 26th all time in career strikeouts with 111. 
• Ohio Northern is in its 120th season of baseball. The Polar Bears are 1493-1163-20 all-time, a winning percentage of .558.
• 14th-year head coach Gene Stechschulte is now 305-216 at Ohio Northern for a winning percentage of .585.

Up Next

• The Polar Bears will now turn their focus to the OAC Tournament which will be Thursday-Saturday at the home of the OAC Regular Season champion.