Armstrong becomes ONU Baseball's home run king with 29th career long ball as ONU splits OAC double header with Marietta

ADA — Senior Chase Armstrong (Lousiville, Ky./Trinity) became Ohio Northern baseball's home run king, leading ONU to a split with Marietta in its OAC opener on Sunday.

ONU took the nightcap 8-5 after MC won the opener 12-1.

The Basics

• Records: Ohio Northern (13-7 Overall, 1-1 OAC), Marietta (5-12 Overall, 3-1 OAC).
• Venue: Wander Field - Ada, Ohio.

Game 1 Recap - L, 1-12

• Senior Robbie Reed (Goshen, Ky./Trinity) scored the only Polar Bear run of the game when he scored on a wild pitch in the fifth inning.
• The Pioneers posted 4 innings where they scored 2 or more runs.
• MC outhit ONU 12-9.

Game 2 Recap - W, 8-5

• Armstrong blasted his record-breaking 29th home run of his career, a solo homer in the bottom of the first to become the all-time leader in program history.
• ONU'S offense plated 6 runs in the first three innings of the game to lead 6-1.
• Sophomore Drew Tolfree (East Lansing, Mich./Lansing Catholic) got the win for the Polar Bears, pitching 5.1 innings of work while only allowing 1 run and 3 hits. 
• Ohio Northern got a quick 2-0 lead as freshman Sammy Roush (Blanchester) and Armstrong hit solo shots in the top of the first. 
• Sophomore Carter Swanson (Wyoming) drove in a run with an RBI single in bottom of the second to make it 3-0 for Ohio Northern. 
• Senior Andrew Stechschulte (Findlay) hit an RBI single in the bottom of the third. 
• Stechschulte added to the lead in the fifth with a solo shot of his own to make it 7-1.
• With ONU ahead 7-4, the Pioneers loaded the bases with no one out in the top of the eighth, but freshman Brayden Windnagel (Etna/Watkins Memorial) got out of the jam, holding the MC offense to just one run. 
• Kyler Lapp (Hall, Ill.) launched Northern's 4th long ball of the game in the bottom of the eighth to add some cushion to the ONU lead.
• ONU out hit MC 12-8.

Notables

• Stechschulte lead the offense of ONU going 4-8 at the plate with 2 RBIs.
• Junior Evan Russ (Westfield, Ind.) went 3-7 at the plate and drew 2 walks.
• Russ now has 100 career base hits to become the 77th member of ONU's 100-Hit Club.
• Marietta leads the all-time series over Ohio Northern 92-25.
• Lapp leads the team this season with a .394 batting average, 20 RBIs, and nine doubles.
• Armstrong has now passed Billy Porterfield, who hit 28 home runs from 1992-95. He is also second all-time in ONU history in walks (93), is 3rd in RBIs (131), is fifth in doubles (38) and is 8th in runs scored (126.)
• Stechschulte (147), Armstrong (137), Reed (137) and Lapp (128) are all members of ONU's 100-Hit Club. 
• Stechschulte is also tied for 8th in ONU history with 34 career doubles.
• Ohio Northern is in its 121st season of baseball. The Polar Bears are 1508-1176-20 all-time, a winning percentage of .561.
• 15th-year head coach Gene Stechschulte is now 320-227 at Ohio Northern for a winning percentage of .585.

Up Next

• The Polar Bears will play the penultimate game of their 8-game home stand when they face off with Wittenberg on Tuesday at 4 PM.