Martin, Hampshire and Obarski all homer in Baseball's 14-12 win at DePauw (Ind.)

By Monique Bowman

GREENCASTLE, Ind. -- The Ohio Northern baseball team broke its five-game losing skid with an exciting 14-12 win at DePauw (Ind.) in a non-conference contest Sunday afternoon at Walker Baseball Field.

The victory moves the Polar Bears to 4-8 overall, while the Tigers are now 12-3.

Northern tallied three home runs on the day, one of which was by junior Cory Martin who went 4-for-5 at the plate with four RBIs and two runs.

Junior Kevin Obarski knocked out his second grand slam of the weekend; he was 1-for-4 with four RBIs today.

Senior Matt Hampshire went 2-for-4 with a homer, one RBI and three runs, while freshman Dan Belliveau also had a great outing, going 2-for-5 and tallying three RBIs.

The Polar Bears went up 2-0 in the first inning when Martin doubled to left center field to bring around Hampshire and Belliveau.

DePauw would score three runs in the third when Rob McPike brought in J.B. McCallum from third. Next up was Jason Cohen would doubled to right center field to bring in McPike and Pat Lyons.

Back-to-back homers by Hampshire and Martin in the sixth inning would put ONU up 4-3. But in the bottom of the inning, the Tigers would score two more runs for the 5-4 lead.

The seventh inning was productive offensively for Northern as well, with Martin picking up another RBI when he singled with two outs against ONU. Obarski then came up next to hit his grand slam to give the Polar Bears the 9-5 lead.

DePauw tied it up in the bottom of the seventh but ONU would outscore the Tigers 5-3 over the course of the next two innings for the win.

Junior Shane Parks pitched two innings in relief to pick up the win. He allowed nine hits, five runs and struck out one batter.

Sophomore Chris Leiby picked up his first save of the season, forcing three straight outs in the ninth inning.

The Polar Bears visit regional rival Bluffton on Tuesday for a non-conference bout starting at 4:15 p.m.