Baseball beats Muskingum 8-4 on rain-shortened Day 2 to stay alive in OAC Tournament

ALLIANCE— The Ohio Northern baseball team took down Muskingum in a win or go home game in the Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament 8-4 thanks to an offensive explosion in the eighth inning on Friday afternoon.

The Basics

• Records: Ohio Northern (27-14 Overall), Muskingum (19-21).
• Venue: Rafeld-Rogers Field - Alliance, Ohio.
• The No. 3 seed Polar Bears' game against No. 1 seeded Mount Union later on Friday is now rescheduled to Saturday at 10 am due to weather. 

The Game - W, 8-4

• Senior Chase Armstrong (Lousiville, Ky./Trinity) led the Polar Bears offensive attack going 2-5 at the plate.
• Freshman Drew Tolfree (East Lansing/Lansing Catholic) continued his undefeated season pushing his record to 7-0 after throwing 8.0 innings while only allowing a single run.
• Junior Kyle Callahan (Brunswick) got the offense rolling in the fifth with an RBI triple. He later came around to score on a wild pitch to make it 2-0.
• The Muskies cut the lead to 2-1 in the seventh, however the ONU offense erupted in the eighth inning for 6 runs.
• Freshman Carson Stevens hit an RBI single, Callahan picked up his second RBI on a bunt, junior Evan Russ (Westfield, Ind.) also picked up an RBI. 
• Senior Robbie Reed (Goshen, Ky./Trinity) hit a 2 RBI single to cap the inning off. 

Notables

• ONU is the No. 3 seed, while Muskingum is the No. 4 seed. 
• This is Northern's fourth straight appearance in the OAC Tournament and sixth in eight years
• Ohio Northern now leads the all-time series with Muskingum 55-33.
• Through 41 games this season, Lapp and Stevens lead the Polar Bears in batting with a .331 average.
• Armstrong is ONU's all-time leader in home runs with 29. He is also second all-time in ONU history in walks (103), is 3rd in RBIs (142), is fifth in doubles (42) and is fourth in runs scored (134).
• Fifth-year senior Andrew Stechschulte (Findlay) (173), Reed (156), Armstrong(153), Junior Kyler Lapp (Hall, Ill.)(149), and Russ (120) are all members of ONU's 100-Hit Club. 
• Stechschulte is also fourth in ONU history with 43 career doubles and is now sixth with 115 RBI.
• Ohio Northern is in its 121st season of baseball. The Polar Bears are 1521-1183-20 all-time, a winning percentage of .562.
• 15th-year head coach Gene Stechschulte is now 333-234 at Ohio Northern for a winning percentage of .589.

Up Next

• The Polar Bears will look to stay alive in the Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament with a face off with No. 1 seed Mount Union on Saturday at 10 am in Game 5.