Baseball sweeps Wilmington to stay undefeated in Ohio Athletic Conference play, runs win streak to 6

ADA — The Ohio Northern baseball team swept Wilmington 13-0 and 11-5 to remain unbeaten in Ohio Athletic Conference play and run its winning streak to six games on Wednesday afternoon.

The Basics

• Records: Ohio Northern (20-6 Overall, OAC 8-0), Wilmington (8-15 Overall, 2-8 OAC).
• Venue: Wander Field - Ada, Ohio.

Game One - W, 13-0 (7 Innings)

• Northern's offense scored in 4 consecutive innings to start the day. 
• Junior Chase Armstrong (Louisville, Ky./Trinity) got the offense rolling with an RBI double in the first. He would later score on a sacrifice fly by sophomore Kyler Lapp (Hall, Ill./Hall) to make it 2-0.
• Senior Elliott Veenstra (Findlay/Liberty-Benton) crushed a grand slam in the 2nd inning, giving the Polar Bears a 6-0 lead. 
• In the third, senior Andrew Stechschulte (Findlay) had an RBI double and junior Robbie Reed (Goshen, Ky./Trinity) hit a sacrifice fly to make it 8-0.
• Sophomores Devon Morris (Archbold) and Evan Russ (Westfield, Ind.) had RBIs in the 4th to give the Polar Bears a 10-0 lead. 
• Senior Blake Altaffer (Monteplier) secured the win for Ohio Northern, throwing 6.0 innings allowing zero runs, to improve to 3-1 on the season.  

Game Two - W, 11-5

• Wilmington struck first and took the lead 3-0 in the top of the first.
• Northern answered with four runs in the fourth to grab a 4-3 lead.
• Wilmington wouldn't go away easy, and tied the game at 4-4 in the 6th.
• Northern's offense answered again in the bottom half of the 6th with a 2-RBI double from Armstrong to make it 6-4.
• Wilmington brought the game within 6-5 in the 8th, but Lapp responded in the bottom half of the 8th with a 2-RBI double making it 8-5.
• Pinch-runner Kyle Callahan scored on an error making it 9-5 in favor of Northern.
• Freshman Charlie Oakleaf (New Albany) and Stechschulte added two more run in the frame, with Oakleaf scoring on a passed ball and an RBI double by Stechschulte. 
• Freshman Jackson Saylor (Springboro) secured the win for the Polar Bears, improving to 5-0 on the season.. 
• Senior Joe Tootle (Powell/Olentangy Liberty) got the save, slamming the door shut on the Quakers in the last 1.1 innings 

Notables

• Armstrong led the ONU offense going 5-8 on the day, as well as scoring 5 total runs, and Lapp recorded a team high 5 RBIs on the day.
• Ohio Northern now leads in the all-time series 40-26 against Wilmington.
• Through 26 games this season, Veenstra leads the Polar Bears with a .403 batting average, going 20-for-49 with 13 RBI.
• Altaffer is tied for 9th in team history in all-time saves with 5. 
• Stechschulte has also now joined the 100-Hit Club with 105 hits in 112 career games.
• Armstrong has also joined the 100-Hit Club with 105 hits in 100 career games. He is also 7th all-time at ONU with 21 career home runs.
• Ohio Northern is in its 120th season of baseball. The Polar Bears are 1486-1160-20 all-time, a winning percentage of .557.
• 14th-year head coach Gene Stechschulte is now 298-212 at Ohio Northern for a winning percentage of .584.

Up Next

• The Polar Bears will return to action on Saturday when they face off against John Carroll in yet another OAC matchup at home starting at 1 pm.