Baseball offense stays hot in 10-6 victory over #14 Case Western Reserve, buts drops second half of double header 12-5 to Spalding (Ky.)

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Ohio Northern baseball team split its double header with a neutral site 10-6 victory over #14 ranked Case Western Reserve and a 12-5 loss to tournament host Spalding on Sunday.

The Basics

• Records: Ohio Northern (2-1 overall), Case Western Reserve (3-3 overall), Spalding (Ky.) (3-3 overall).
• Venue: Derby City Field - Louisville, Ky.

Game One - W, 10-6 v #14 Case Western Reserve

• Sophomore Kyler Lapp (Hall, Ill.) led the Polar Bear offense by going 2-3 at the plate with 3 RBIs and 2 runs scored.
• Case Western set the tone early and scored 4 runs in the first 2 innings.
• Sophomore Caleb Click (Maumee/Saint John's) got ONU on the board with a 2-run double making it 4-2. 
• CWRU got one back in the top half of the third, pushing the lead to 5-2.
• An RBI single by sophomore Evan Russ (Westfield, Ind./Westfield) inched Northern even closer in the bottom of the 3rd. 
• A Lapp sacrifice fly scored one more for ONU, and a run by sophomore Kyle Callahan (Brunswick) on a passed ball tied the game 5-5
• Sophomore Devon Morris (Archbold) notched an RBI single giving the Polar Bears the lead, capping off a 3-run inning. 
• The Spartans tied it up at 6-6 in the top of the fifth on a sacrifice fly. 
• Junior Robbie Reed (Goshen, Ky /Trinity) broke the tie in the bottom half of the inning with an RBI single. 
• Senior Sam Sells (Lewis Center/Olentangy Orange) added to the lead with an RBI single in the bottom of the 6th. 
• Lapp capped off the game for the ONU offense with a 2-run single in the bottom of the 7th, giving them a 10-6 lead which they would not relinquish. 
• Eight of 9 ONU hitters had base hits and five recorded multi-hit games.
• Senior Joe Tootle (Powell/Olentangy Liberty) got the win for the Polar Bears, going 5.2 inning on the day. 
• Senior Sam Thombs (Commerce Township, Mich./Lutheran) picked up the save, throwing 3.1 scoreless innings in relief.
• ONU out-hit CWR 13-10.

Game Two - L, 5-12 at Spalding

• Northern jumped to an early 1-0 lead in the game behind a Russ RBI single in the top of the 2nd. 
• Spalding answered with two 4-run innings in a row grabbing a 8-1 lead in the going into the top of the 5th.
• After adding more runs the in the bottom of the 5th inning Spalding led 10-1.
• In the top of the 7th Northern scored on a 2-run single by freshman Charlie Oakleaf (New Albany) which cut the lead to 10-3.
• ONU added two more runs on a two-out RBI single by Russ in the top of the 9th.

Notables

• Lapp and Russ led the Polar Bear offense, as each man was 5-for-8 at the plate in the day.
• Northern leads the all-time series with Case Western Reserve 6-2. 
• Spalding (Ky.) leads the series 2-0 all-time with its victory.
• Through 3 games this season, Russ leads the Polar Bears with a .714 batting average, going 10-for-14, and 8 RBI.
• Stechschulte now has 88 base hits in 89 career games.
• Armstrong now has 83 base hits in 77 career games.
• Ohio Northern is in its 120th season of baseball. The Polar Bears are 1468-1155-20 all-time, a winning percentage of .559.
• 14th-year head coach Gene Stechschulte is now 280-207 at Ohio Northern for a winning percentage of .575.

Up Next

• The Polar Bears will be traveling to Davenport, Fla. beginning March 8th to play in the Russ Matt Invitational, kicking things off with a double-header against Mass.-Dartmouth.