Baseball opens OAC slate with home double header against No. 3-ranked Baldwin Wallace

ADA — The Ohio Northern baseball team opened its Ohio Athletic Conference schedule with a double header against No. 3-ranked Baldwin Wallace on a cold Sunday afternoon at Wander Field.

The Basics

• Records: Ohio Northern (6-10 overall, 0-2 OAC), Baldwin Wallace (15-3 overall, 2-0 OAC)
• Venue: Wander Field - Ada, Ohio.

Game 1 - L, 5-7

• Northern rallied from a 4-1 deficit to pull within 5-3 after six innings.
• BW scored twice in the top of the eighth to make it 7-3, but ONU answered with a run in the bottom half to enter the ninth down 7-4.
• The Polar Bears loaded the bases with two out in the bottom of the ninth and freshman Kyler Lapp (Hall, Ill.) scored on a wild pitch to make it 7-5.
• But Yellow Jacket reliever Jake Heatherington got a strikeout to end the game.
• Junior Andrew Stechschulte (Findlay) and sophomore Robbie Reed (Goshen, Ky./Trinity) each went 2-for-3 to lead the ONU offense.
• DU tied it at 5-5 in the top of the ninth with a triple and sac fly.
• BW out-hit ONU 10-9 in the opener.

Game 2 - L, 2-9

• Senior Logan Stevens (Plain City/Alder) got the Polar Bears off to a fast start in game two with a 2-run home run in the bottom of the first inning.
• That 2-0 lead held until the top of the sixth when Baldwin Wallace scored four times to go up 4-2.
• BW got three more in the seventh and one each in the eighth and ninth frames to put the game away.
• The Yellow Jackets out-hit the Polar Bears 11-5 in the nightcap.

Notables

• Stechschulte and Reed each went 3-for-6 on the day to lead the ONU offense.
• BW is now 58-53 all-time against ONU.
• Northern has now played three consecutive games nationally-ranked teams. In all, five of ONU's 16 games thus far this season have come against nationally-ranked opponents.
• Junior Joey Kennedy (Sterling Heights, Mich./Foley Catholic) and Lapp lead the team with batting averages of .441 and .356, respectively.
• Ohio Northern is in its 119th season of baseball. The Polar Bears are 1448-1147 all-time, a winning percentage of .558.
• 13th-year head coach Gene Stechschulte is now 258-198 at Ohio Northern for a winning percentage of .566.

Up Next

• The Polar Bears will return to action on Monday with a 4 pm non-conference tilt against Trine (Ind.) at Wander Field.