Offensive eruption leads ONU to OAC doubleheader sweep of Baldwin-Wallace

BEREA — The Ohio Northern baseball team defeated Baldwin-Wallace 8-1 in Game 1 and 8-5 in Game 2 to earn its first Ohio Athletic Conference doubleheader sweep on the road since 2002 on Friday at Heritage Field.

The Polar Bears improved to 10-14 overall and 2-2 in the OAC, while the Yellow Jackets dropped to 9-9-1 and 2-4 in the OAC.

Northern's last doubleheader sweep in the conference occurred on April 20, 2002 at Muskingum.

Seven Polar Bears had a multi-hit game, with sophomores Greg Gibbons and Drew Robinson collecting a two hits in both games.

Senior Mark Sankovich pitched his fifth complete game of the season and the Polar Bears collected 10 hits in the 8-1 Game 1 victory.

ONU exploded for six runs in the second inning of the first game.

Freshman catcher Adam Grof doubled and freshmen Chris Sobieray walked to lead off the inning.

Freshman Mike Hoelzel followed and singled to score Grof.

Two batters later, sophomore Brandon Hubbard smacked a two-run double to put ONU up 3-0 with no outs.

The next batter after Hubbard, Gibbons, hit a two-run single to put the Polar Bears up 5-0.

Gibbons scored the final run of the inning after a throwing error by the Yellow Jackets.

Baldwin-Wallace scored their only run in the third when Jake Gross scored after a Cody Kidd single.

Northern added a pair of runs in the seventh.

Sophomore pinch runner Matt Rader scored after Sobieray walked with the bases loaded.

A batter later, sophomore Brett Katana scored after Hoelzel was hit by a pitch to put ONU up 8-1.

Sankovich improved to 5-2.

He gave up only one earned run and five hits, while striking out five in seven innings.

Scott Luthman dropped to 1-2 for Baldwin-Wallace after giving up 10 hits and eight runs in six innings.

In Game 2, the Polar Bears jumped out to an 8-0 lead.

Robinson hit an RBI double, Katana smacked an RBI triple and Sobieray singled to score a run to put ONU up 3-0 in the first.

Hubbard tacked on another run in the second.

The center fielder singled, stole second and scored on an error.

Northern scored four unearned runs in the third. Freshman Adam Yunker reached on an error with two outs to open the flood gates.

Grof, who had previously doubled, scored on the B-W error and Hoelzel scored after a Yunker steal.

Hubbard and Gibbons capped the scoring with back-to-back RBI doubles to put ONU ahead 8-0.

The Yellow Jackets put two unearned runs on the scoreboard and added another on a sacrifice fly to make the score 8-3 in the third.

In the fifth, Baldwin-Wallce got an RBI single from Kevin Shenker, who also scored on a passed ball.

Junior pitcher Brian Hill gave up two earned runs and seven hits, while walking none in six innings of work to improve to 2-3.

Senior pitchers Drew Weiland and Nick Simoff finished the game in relief with Simoff earning his second save of the season.

Justin Novak fell to 1-2 for the Yellow Jackets after allowing 13 hits and eight runs (three earned) in 6 2/3 innings.

Katana had three hits in Game 2.

The Polar Bears return to action this Wednesday when they host Wilmington for an OAC doubleheader at 1 p.m. at Wander Field.