Baseball pieces solid hitting and pitching together for wins over Oberlin

By: Jay Garneau

ADA — Behind solid pitching and timely hitting, the Ohio Northern baseball team won a pair of 3-2 games over Oberlin in a non-conference doubleheader at Wander Field on Friday afternoon.
The Polar Bears improve to 19-15 overall with the two wins, while Oberlin falls to 14-21.

Junior Eric Yunker (Holland/Toledo Christian) led the way offensively, finishing the day 3-for-5 with two doubles and three RBIs for ONU.

Sophomore Shane Parks (Boardman) closed out both games with scoreless seventh innings to pick up his eighth and ninth saves of the year.

In the opener, Oberlin scored runs in the first and third to jump out to a 2-0 lead.

After walks by senior Adam Yunker (Holland/Toledo Christian) and senior Mike Hoelzel (Canfield) and an Oberlin error, freshman Josh Murphy (Kettering Fairmont) hit an RBI groundout to score Hoelzel.

With runners on second and third, Eric Yunker drilled a line drive double into the left center field gap to give ONU the 3-2 lead.

Junior Cody Fisher (Helena/Gibsonburg) allowed two earned runs over 6.0 innings, walking just one and striking out five to improve to a 2-3 record.

Parks picked up his eighth save of the season with a scoreless seventh inning.

In the nightcap, ONU got on the board first in the bottom of the second.

Murphy doubled and advanced to third on an Eric Yunker sacrifice bunt. Sophomore Tom Walton (Upper Sandusky) laid down a perfect squeeze bunt, giving Northern the 1-0 lead.

Hoelzel led off the third inning with a single, which was followed by a Cory Martin (Akron/Ellet) walk and a bunt single by sophomore Kevin Obarski (Powell/Bishop Watterson).

Ohio Northern increased the lead to 3-0 in the fourth when Adam Yunker singled, stole second and scored on an Oberlin error.

Oberlin picked up runs in the fifth and sixth to cut the lead to 3-2.

Parks again entered the game in the seventh, this time striking out two batters and not allowing a base runner to record his ninth save of the year.

Junior Ryan Damman (Fremont/Ross) improved to 2-2, allowing two runs (one earned) over 6.0 innings, striking out four and walking none.

Adam Yunker, Obarski and Murphy each finished the second game with two hits.

The Polar Bears will look to keep their hopes of gaining a berth into the Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament alive tomorrow as they travel to Mount Union for a conference doubleheader at 1 p.m.