Baseball sweeps Mount Union 6-5 and 6-1 to celebrate Senior Day

By Jay Garneau

ADA - The Ohio Northern baseball team swept Mount Union by scores of 6-5 and 6-1 in a key Ohio Athletic Conference doubleheader at Wander Field Wednesday afternoon to move closer to the team's first berth into the OAC Tournament since 2000 and 17th in program history.

Ohio Northern (26-10 overall, 10-6 OAC) can clinch a spot in the OAC Tournament with a win against John Carroll on Saturday. Mount Union moves to 15-16 overall and 5-9 in the OAC.

Senior Brett Katana finished the day 5-for-8 with two doubles, two RBIs and his eighth save of the season in Game 1.

Katana now has 167 career hits, sixth best in Ohio Northern history. Katana is four hits away from being tied with Roy Henson for fifth.

ONU used leadoff home runs over the right field wall by senior Matt Rader in the first inning and junior Erik Stegman in the second to take a 2-0 advantage.

After the Purple Raiders used two RBI doubles and an RBI single to take the 3-2 lead, the Polar Bears answered with two doubles and three runs of their own.

Katana led off with a double and was sacrificed to third before scoring on an RBI single by senior Loren Fleischman. Following a Stegman double, Rader hit into an RBI fielder's choice that also scored Stegman on an error to give ONU the 5-3 advantage.

Mount Union tied the game on a two-run double by Dan Henderson in the fifth, but ONU was able to retake the lead in the sixth.

Rader was hit by a pitch to start the inning. As junior Adam Yunker reached on an infield single, an errant throw to second wound up in center field, allowing Rader to advance to third, where he promptly scored on an RBI fielder's choice by senior Greg Gibbons.

With the tying run on third in the top of the seventh, Katana was able to pick up his second strikeout of the inning to end the game and pick up his ONU record eighth save of the year and ninth of his career.

Senior Kevin Sigg picked up the win to improve to 3-1 as he tossed 1 1/3 innings, allowing just one hit and no runs.

ONU again got out to a quick start in Game 2, scoring two runs in the bottom of the first.

After an Adam Yunker single, back-to-back RBI doubles by sophomore Matt Hampshire and Katana gave Northern a 2-0 lead.

Mount Union picked up their only run of the game in the top of the second, which was answered with an ONU run in the bottom of the frame, when junior Mike Hoelzel hit his first of three doubles, scoring on an RBI single by Adam Yunker.

Hoelzel's second double came in the fourth, when he knocked in Fleischman after he started the inning with a single, pushing ONU's lead to 4-1.

An RBI single by Katana plated Adam Yunker in the fifth and back-to-back doubles by Hoelzel and Rader in the sixth made it a 6-1 game.

Sophomore Justin Good started and allowed just one earned run over six innings, allowing four hits, five walks, and striking out three batters to improve to 4-1.

Fellow sophomore Jacob Drerup tossed two scoreless innings in relief and Katana and Sigg combined to close out the game with a scoreless ninth.

Fleischman picked up two hits to push his career total to 120, 31st best all-time.

Gibbons now has 156 career hits, moving him into a tie for 11th in ONU history.

ONU will close out the regular season as they travel to John Carroll for an OAC doubleheader Saturday at 1 pm in hunt for an OAC Tournament berth.