Hayes and Yunker each homer in Baseball's split at Manchester (Ind.)

By: Jay Garneau

NORTH MANCHESTER, Ind. – The Ohio Northern baseball team split a pair of games against Manchester (Ind.), winning the opener 7-6 but losing the nightcap 13-9 at Gratz Field on Wednesday afternoon.

The Polar Bears move to 5-10 overall, while the Spartans stay above .500 at 8-7.

Seniors Mark Hayes and Eric Yunker each homered to lead the Polar Bears.

In the opener, Hayes hit a two-run bomb in the top of the second to start the scoring.

ONU scored four more runs in the inning, as senior Chad Coward hit an RBI single, freshman Dan Belliveau hit a two-run single, and Yunker closed the scoring with an RBI triple to give Northern a 6-0 lead.

The Spartans chipped away, scoring a run each of the next four innings to cut ONU's lead to 6-4 after five innings.

A Josh Murphy RBI single in the sixth ended up being the game-winner, as a two-run Manchester home run in the seventh shortened ONU's lead to 7-6, but junior Shane Parks stranded the potential winning run on third as he picked up his second save of the year.

Sophomore Andrew Tople picked up the win to improve to 1-1 on the season.

Juniors Cory Martin and Devin Kisor and Coward each had two hits in the game.

ONU outhit Manchester 17-15 in the second game, but the Polar Bears stranded 13 runners – seven in scoring position.

The Spartans also avoided several big innings by forcing double play grounders, as ONU hit into four double plays in the first seven innings.

Trailing 8-1, Yunker led off the fourth inning with a homer to cut the lead to 8-2.

The Polar Bears then loaded up the bases with one out, but a double play ball ended the ONU rally.

After the Spartans extended the lead to 11-2 in the bottom of the inning, ONU struck back with five runs in the seventh as five different Polar Bears had RBIs, cutting the deficit to 11-7.

Both teams scored a single run in each of their last two offensive innings, as the Spartans closed out the 13-9 win that earned Sean Lietdky his first win of the year.

Hampshire finished the game 4-for-6 with a pair of doubles and two RBIs, giving him a team-leading 10 extra base hits this season.

Northern will get its last non-conference preparation on Saturday, as the Polar Bears head to Urbana for a doubleheader at 12:30 p.m., with the second game against Salem International (W. Va.) at 4 p.m.