Baseball downed in OAC doubleheader at Mount Union

By: Jay Garneau

ALLIANCE — The Ohio Northern baseball team dropped a pair of Ohio Athletic Conference games to conference foe Mount Union at 23rd Street Field on Saturday afternoon.

With wins by scores of 8-2 and 12-0, the Purple Raiders improve to 15-16 and 9-5 in the OAC, while ONU falls to 19-17 (4-12 OAC).

Seniors Mike Hoelzel (Canfield) and Erik Stegman (Parma/Parma Senior) each finished the day 3-for-7 with a run scored to lead the Polar Bears.

In the opener, Mount Union plated two runs in the second and three more in the fifth to take a 5-0 lead.

ONU got on the board in the sixth, when Hoelzel and junior Matt Hampshire (Lima/Elida) started the innings with singles.

After a passed ball, Hoelzel scored on an RBI groundout by freshman Josh Murphy (Kettering Fairmont) to cut the lead to 5-1.

The Purple Raiders tacked on three more in the bottom of the sixth and doubles by Stegman and senior Adam Yunker (Holland/Toledo Christian) put another run on the board for ONU (8-2).

Mount Union's Cody Colly tossed a complete game to record the victory and improve to 5-2.

The Purple Raider bats were hot from the start in the nightcap, scoring two runs in the first, five in the third, three in the sixth and two in the seventh.

Mount Union's Craig Knott finished the game 5-for-5 with three runs, three RBIs and a stolen base to lead the squad.

Matt Murzynski picked up the win to improve to 4-1, throwing 7.0 scoreless innings.

Freshman Chris Leiby (Howland) threw 1.2 scoreless innings in relief, walking one and striking out one.

ONU will honor its seniors in Adam Yunker, Stegman and Hoelzel in the last regular season home game on Saturday, May 7, as the Polar Bears host John Carroll in an OAC doubleheader at 1 p.m.