Baseball opens OAC schedule with 14-0, 9-2 sweep at Wilmington

By Tim Glon

WILMINGTON — The Ohio Northern baseball team opened its Ohio Athletic Conference schedule with a 14-0, 9-2 sweep at Wilmington Saturday afternoon at Tewsbury-Delany Field.

The Polar Bears run their win streak to 12 games and improve to 13-1 overall and are 2-0 in the OAC, while the Quakers fall to 3-13, 0-2.

Junior Nick Eltzroth turned in another fine pitching performance in Game 1, limiting WC to just three hits while striking out a career-high 11 in 8.0 innings of work to earn the win. He is now 4-0 on the season with an impressive 0.68 ERA.

Northern got on top big early, scoring five time in the top of the first, once in the second and twice more in the third to lead 8-0.

Thirteen different Polar Bears had a base hit the game and five different players had two RBI each.

Eltzroth, senior Brady Foley, senior Derek Lenardos, freshman Dan McMullen and junior Cody Meyer all had doubles and junior Nick Guitar had a triple for ONU.

In Game 2, freshmen Brandon Kasberg and Ben Wake had back-to-back RBI singles to key a 4-run second inning to put Ohio Northern up 4-0 early.

Wake hit a sac fly in the fourth to make it 5-0.

Elzroth and Foley had back-to-back RBI doubles and Foley later scored on a passed ball as ONU tacked on three insurance runs in the eighth.

Junior Alex Crabtree improved to 3-0 on the year, allowing just five hits and two runs in 7.0 innings on the mound.

The Polar Bears will return to action Tuesday with a 4 pm contest at Thomas More (Ky.)