Coach Stechschulte picks up 300th career win as Baseball splits a pair at Capital

COLUMBUS — The Ohio Northern baseball team split a pair with Capital, falling in game one 11-10 in 10 innings, but bounce back and win game two 13-8 on Friday afternoon.

The Basics

• Records: Ohio Northern (22-8 Overall, 10-2 OAC), Capital (14-22 Overall, 5-9 OAC).
• Venue: Clowson Field - Columbus, Ohio.

Game One - L, 10-11 (10 innings)

• Northern's offense struck in the first thanks to an RBI  by sophomore Kyler Lapp (Hall, Ill./Hall). senior Andrew Stechschulte (Findlay).
• Sophomore Devon Morris (Archbold) notched an RBI single and made it 2-0.
• Capital answered with a run of their own in the bottom half of the 1st.
• Evan Russ (Westfield, Ind./Westfield) singled in the 3rd and after an error in the outfield he would come around to score as well as knocking in Morris, which made it 4-1.
• Northern piled on 5 more runs to make it 9-1 in the 4th and 5th inning including an RBI double by senior Elliot Veenstra (Findlay/Liberty-Benton) and two RBI singles by senior Chase Armstrong
• The Comets wouldn't relent, as they nabbed 2 runs back, with 1 in the 5th and another in the 6th. 
• Northern's offense erupted in the 8th, scoring 5 runs.
• Senior Andrew Stechschulte (Findlay) responded for the Polar Bears with a solo homer, which made the game 10-5
• Going in to the 9th Northern lead 10-5, however CU battled all the way back to even the game at 10-10.
• In the 10th inning Capital would end the game with an RBI single to walk the game off. 

Game Two - W, 13-8

• Ohio Northern struck first grabbing an early 1-0 lead in the 1st on a RBI by Armstrong
• The Polar Bear offense erupted in the 2nd inning for 5 runs.
• A Stechschulte double scored 2, junior Robbie Reed hit an RBI single, and Armstrong launched a 2-run homer to cap the inning off. 
• Lapp recorded an RBI single in the 4th, which made it 7-0 Polar Bears. 
• Capital got two back in the bottom of the 4th.
• Stechschulte hit a sacrifice fly in the 5th to make it 8-1. 
• Armstrong launched yet another homer in the 6th.
• However Capital inched closer, and got two more runs across in the bottom half. 
• Veenstra knocked a 2-run single and Lapp hit a sacrifice fly in the 7th pushing the lead back to 12-4.
• Then is the 8th Aslyn Farinelli (Crown Point, Ind./Crown Point)launched a solo homer, which capped off the scoring for the day for ONU. 
• Capital wouldn't go quietly, as they rallied again in the 9th scoring 4 runs, but that would be all  they'd get. 
• Freshman Jackson Saylor (Springboro) picked up the win, pitching 7.2 innings on his way to securing his 6th win of the season.

Notables

• Amrstrong led the ONU offensive attack, going 5-11 at the plate, launching two homers, notching 7 RBI and scoring 3 runs. 
• Ohio Northern now leads the all-time series 77-34-1 against Capital.
• Through 30 games this season, Veenstra leads the Polar Bears with a .416 batting average, going 32-for-77 with 22 RBI.
• Stechschulte has also now joined the 100-Hit Club with 110 hits in 116 career games.
• Armstrong has also joined the 100-Hit Club with 111 hits in 104 career games. He is also 6th all-time at ONU with 23 career home runs.
• With his win today Saylor is tied for first in the OAC in wins with 6. 
• Ohio Northern is in its 120th season of baseball. The Polar Bears are 1488-1162-20 all-time, a winning percentage of .557.
• 14th-year head coach Gene Stechschulte is now 300-214 at Ohio Northern for a winning percentage of .584.

Up Next

• The Polar Bears will return to action on Monday against area-rival Bluffton at 4 p.m at home.