Baseball suffers doubleheader setback, losing two games to conference-foe Muskingum

By Steve Green

NEW CONCORD - Ohio Northern was not able to produce much offense as Muskingum pitchers Nathan VanMeter and Levi Shaw both pitched complete games to sweep the Polar Bears 4-0 and 4-2 on Saturday.

With the losses, the Polar Bears drop to 14-20 on the year and 3-11 in Ohio Athletic Conference play, while Muskingum improves to 21-14 and 8-8 in OAC play.

In the first game, the Polar Bears only managed to get two hits off of VanMeter, as he pitched a complete game with nine strikeouts and only one walk.

Muskingum used a two-run fourth inning to gain a 2-0 lead and never looked back scoring, one run in the fifth and another in the sixth to put the game out of reach.

Northern improved in the second game, but fell short in a 4-2 effort.  Junior Matt Rader and freshman Matt Hampshire both had RBI's in the third inning that gave the Polar Bears a 2-0 lead.

But Muskingum would battle back in the fifth, tying the game at 2-2.  Two more runs in the seventh and eighth innings gave the Fighting Muskies the 4-2 victory.

Rader had his eight-game hit streak snapped in Game 1, but his hit in the second game allowed him to reach base in 12 of the last 13 games.

Freshmen pitcher Cody Fisher got a no decision after pitching six solid innings.

Northern will look to bounce back on Tuesday with a 1 pm double header at home against Otterbein.