Baseball falls 6-1, 15-7 at Mount Union

By Caleb Scott

ALLIANCE -- The Ohio Northern baseball team fell to Mount Union 6-1, 15-6 Thursday afternoon at 23rd Street Field in Alliance.

The Polar Bears fall to 13-11 overall and 4-4 in the Ohio Athletic Conference, while the Purple Raiders improve to 12-13, 3-5. 

Sophomore Hayden Shenefield led the way for the Polar Bears as he went 3-for-7 at the plate and added an RBI and two runs scored.

Northern fell behind 4-0 in the first game before senior Clay Small hit an RBI double to center field in the top of the fifth inning and scored sophomore Brandon Kasberg to pull ONU within 4-1. 

MtU would add two more runs in the final three innings to close game one. 

Senior Ben Glischinski tossed a game-high seven strikeouts in the first game.

In game two of the twin-bill, Mount Union would take a 1-0 lead early in the first inning before the Polar Bears took the lead with two runs in the top of the third inning.

Senior Andy Lubonovic would get the first run for Northern after he scored off an RBI single from Shenefield to tie the game at 1-1.

Northern would gain the lead as Small reached on a fielding error from the second basemen and Shenefield scored to push the lead to 2-1. 

Mount Union would tie the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the third inning before ONU regained the lead in the fifth inning after Kasberg singled and scored senior Nick Eltzroth to make the score 3-2.

The Purple Raiders would open up a five run lead as they posted six runs in the bottom of the fifth and took a 8-3 lead. 

In the ensuing inning, Ohio Northern was able to narrow the MtU lead as sophomore T.J. Storer hit a triple to right field and plated Small.

Eltzroth was able to score Storer as he hit a sacrifice fly to center field to pull ONU within 8-5.

Mount Union was able to score seven more runs in the next two innings to open up a 15-5 lead. 

Northern was able to add two more runs in the ninth inning as junior Jacob Lochard singled to left field and scored Shenfield and freshman Adam Wilson scored on a fielders choice.

Northern will return to action Saturday afternoon as they travel to New Concord to take on OAC foe Muskingum at 1 pm.