#20 Baseball has milestone victory, tops #7 Wooster 3-1
By Tim Glon
ADA — Senior Dan Belliveau and junior Nick Eltzroth each reached individual milestones and the No. 20-ranked Ohio Northern baseball team picked up a big win for its program with a 3-1 victory over No. 7-ranked Wooster on Tuesday at Wander Field.
The Polar Bears improve to 29-8 and run their win streak to five games, while the Scots fall to 30-6 and see their 10-game winning streak come to an end.
"This was a big win for our program," ONU head coach Gene Stechschulte said. "When you pitch well and make the routine plays, you will win a lot of games. Everyone on our team contributed today. Three different guys pitched well. We pinch-hit two guys and one had a hit and one had a sac fly. We pinch-ran a guy and he stole a base. These are the types of games we need to expect to play to get where we want to be as a program."
Belliveau tripled and scored in the sixth inning to put ONU ahead 3-1 and tie him for the school's all-time career record.
He now has 15 career triples, which equals the mark set by Brian Ramsey from 1985-88.
Two days after joining ONU's 100-K Club on the mound, Eltzroth went 2-for-4 with a run scored to give him 100 base hits in his career. He is now the 58th member of ONU's 100-Hit Club, joining teammated Belliveau and senior Jack LaMarca on that list.
After the Scots took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second, ONU answered in the bottom of the inning when Belliveau led off with a double down the right field line and later scored on a 2-out throwing error to tie it at 1-all.
Eltzroth led off the home half of the fourth with a single, went to third on a single by Belliveau and scored on a single by freshman Jordan Bostater to put the Polar Bears on top 2-1.
Freshman John Kopicky (2-1) was solid in the start, allowing five hits and just one earned run in 5.1 innings to get the win on the bump.
Junior Ben Glischinski threw 2.2 innings of shutout relief and pitched out of a bases loaded jam in the sixth and a 2-on, 2-out jam in the eighth.
Freshman T.J. Storer got the final three outs to pick up his fifth save of the season.
The three Polar Bear pitchers limited the Scots nine runs under their season average of 10.6 rpg.
Ohio Northern will now turn its focus back to the Ohio Athletic Conference and Saturday's double header at No. 6-ranked Heidelberg in Tiffin.
An ONU sweep would bring a share of the OAC Regular Season title and next weekend's OAC Tournament to Ohio Northern and a split would get the Polar Bears safely into the 4-team OAC Tournament.
