Baseball's seven-game win streak snapped in doubleheader loss to Marian (Ind.)
By Jay Garneau
INDIANAPOLIS - The Ohio Northern baseball team dropped both ends of a doubleheader to Marian (Ind.) at the Marian University Baseball Field Tuesday afternoon.
The Polar Bears fall to 11-3 overall, while Marian, an NAIA school, improves to 6-9 overall.
With the loss, ONU's winning streak is snapped at seven games, the program's best since they reeled off eight consecutive victories in 2005.
Marian won Game 1 10-0 in 5 innings and Game 2 by a score of 12-2 in 6 innings.
In Game 1, the Polar Bears never had more than one runner on base at one time.
The Knights were on an offensive attack all game, picking up two runs in each of the first and third innings, scoring five more in the fourth, and tacking on the tenth run in the bottom of the fifth.
Three Polar Bears had solid games offensively for ONU. Senior Brett Katana was 2-for-2, senior Matt Rader went 1-for-1, adding a hit by a pitch and sacrifice bunt, and junior Mike Hoelzel was 1-for-1 with a walk.
In Game 2, Northern struck first in the opening frame. Rader led off with a walk, and was able to come around to score after a wild pitch and passed ball for the 1-0 lead.
Marian answered right back by picking up five runs in the bottom of the inning to take a 5-1 lead.
The Knights added two more in both the third and fourth innings to increase the margin to 9-1.
ONU picked up another run in the top of the fifth when sophomore Matt Hampshire drove an RBI single through the left side to make it a 9-2 game.
Marian picked up three more runs in the bottom of the sixth to end the game at 12-2.
Hampshire finished the game 2-for-3 to lead the Polar Bears.
Marian's Bobby Willis led the way offensively for Marian, going 3-for-7 with a double, triple, and 3 RBIs, while Rick Parrish posted a complete game shutout in Game 1, striking out four ONU batters in five innings of work.
Katana's two hits give him 143 for his career, making him 16th all-time on ONU's career list, while senior Greg Gibbons picked up one hit to give him 123, standing pat at 28th all-time for the Polar Bears.
ONU will look to rebound Saturday when they host OSU – Lima at Wander Field in a twinbill, with the first pitch of the opener at 1 pm.