Baseball falls 5-1 in extra innings to Wittenberg

By: Jay Garneau

ADA — The Ohio Northern baseball team dropped a tough 5-1 non-conference contest in ten innings to Wittenberg at Wander Field on Tuesday evening.

Northern falls to 14-10 overall, while the Tigers improve to 18-12 on the season.

For ONU, junior Ryan Damman (Fremont/Ross) threw 7.0 scoreless innings, allowing just four hits and three walks while striking out seven batters.

Despite ONU scoring first, the Wittenberg offense battled to tie the game in the ninth and add four more runs in the tenth.

ONU got on the board first in the bottom of the seventh.

After a walk by senior Adam Yunker (Holland/Toledo Christian), sacrifice bunt by senior Mike Hoelzel (Canfield) and walk by junior Eric Yunker (Holland/Toledo Christian), junior Matt Hampshire (Lima/Elida) drilled a pinch-hit line drive single into center field to score Adam Yunker.

In the top of the ninth, Wittenberg's David Moore hit a one-out double into the left field corner. After advancing to third on a groundout, he scored on an ONU fielding error to tie the game at 1-1.

Northern left the bases loaded in the bottom of the inning, as Wittenberg's Sam Clement struck out three batters to end the ONU rally.

The Tiger offense then broke the game open for four runs in the top of the tenth to pull out the 5-1 victory.

Wittenberg starter Zach Spring limited the ONU offense to two hits and five walks over 6.0 innings, but Clement picked up the win to improve to 4-0.

Adam Yunker (1-for-3) has now reached base in 20 straight games, with hits in 17 of them.

ONU will be back in action tomorrow as it hosts No. 5-ranked Heidelberg in an Ohio Athletic Conference doubleheader, with the first pitch slated for 1 p.m.