Senior Brett Katana makes history on the mound as Baseball splits OAC doubleheader with Baldwin-Wallace

By Jay Garneau

ADA — Senior Brett Katana broke two school records as the Ohio Northern baseball team split a doubleheader with Baldwin-Wallace at Wander Field Saturday afternoon.

Ohio Northern (17-8 overall, 3-5 Ohio Athletic Conference) won Game 1 3-0, while the Yellow Jackets (8-16 overall, 3-5 OAC) won Game 2 by a score of 11-4.

Katana picked up his seventh save of the season in the opener by tossing a scoreless inning and striking out one to break the record of six saves set by John Thistlewaite in 2002.

The save was also the eighth of his career, breaking the ONU record of seven previously shared by Thistlewaite ('99-02) and Jeff Schwerer ('77-80).

Freshman Austin Price also had an excellent outing, tossing six scoreless innings, allowing just three hits and four walks while fanning four batters to pick up the win and improve to 6-1 on the year.

In the second inning, Sophomore Matt Hampshire tripled and scored on an RBI groundout by sophomore Eric Yunker to give ONU a 1-0 lead.

The Polar Bears picked up two more runs in the bottom of the fifth to push the lead to 3-0.

After Eric Yunker reached on a fielder's choice, junior Erik Stegman doubled down the left field line. Back-to-back RBI infield singles by senior Brandon Aselage and junior Mike Hoelzel plated Yunker and Stegman.

Baldwin-Wallace loaded up the bases in the seventh before Katana induced a game-ending 6-4-3 double play.

In Game 2, Northern was unable to contain a Yellow Jacket offense which scored 11 runs on 15 hits.

After B-W scored four runs in the top of the second, ONU tied it up with two runs in each of the next two innings.

Eric Yunker and Katana started the second inning with singles before Stegman's second double of the day scored both runners.

In the third, senior Greg Gibbons reached on a B-W error and Hampshire added a double. Gibbons scored on an RBI groundout by Katana and Hampshire scored when Eric Yunker reached on B-W's second error of the inning.

That was all the offense ONU had, while the Yellow Jackets picked up four runs in the top of the sixth and one run in each of the fourth, seventh, and ninth innings, as they defeated Northern.

B-W's Scott Luthman threw a complete-game four-hitter, allowing two earned runs and striking out five, holding ONU hitless in each of the last six innings.

Katana had one hit on the day and still stands 11th all-time at ONU with 154 in his career, while Gibbons now has 140 in his career, moving him into a tie for 19th.

ONU will travel to Defiance Tuesday for a single game beginning at 4 pm before hosting Otterbein in an OAC doubleheader Wednesday at 1 pm.