Baseball: Ohio Northern at RussMatt Invitational - Auburndale, Fla.
Sat., Mar. 4 - Sat., Mar. 11, 2017 - Auburndale, Florida
This Week's Preview: Ohio Northern opens the 2017 campaign with its annual Spring Break trip to Florida ... The Polar Bears will play 10 games over the course of seven days in Auburndale, Fla. ... Northern will open the trip with a double header against Grove City (Pa.) on Mar. 4 at 2:30 ... Northern will then take on Bridgewater (Va.) in double header action on Mar. 5 with the first contest starting at 1 pm ... After a day off, ONU will take on Pitt.-Greensburg on Mar. 7 at 12 pm, before taking on St. John Fisher (N.Y.) at 9:15 on Mar. 8 ... The Polar Bears will take on Rhode Island College at 9 am on Mar. 10, before a contest with Gwynedd Mercy (Pa.) at 12:30 pm on Mar. 10 ... Northern will wrap the trip up with a double header against WPI on Mar. 11 with game one beginning at 9 am ... Seniors Zach Maier and Devin Carr will look to lead the pitching staff as both return in 2017 as 3-time letterwinners ... Maier waived 25 batters in 31.0 innings of action a season ago, while posting a 2.03 ERA ... Carr makes his return in 2017 after making eight appearances on the bump last season, including six starts ... Junior Preseason First Team All-American T.J. Storer will look to be the closer for the Polar Bears after posting a historic sophomore season ... The junior owns the school record for career saves (13) and currently has the best career ERA (1.23) in school history ... Storer led the Polar Bears last season with a 0.49 ERA and only allowed 18 hits in 37.0 innings of work ... Storer made 12 appearances on the mound last season and had a team-best eight saves ... Juniors Jordan Bostater, Brandon Kasberg, Hayden Shenefield and Dan Barna will look to lead Northern at the plate in 2017.
2016 Batting Leaders - Returners
| Batting Ave. |
Hits | Runs | RBIs | |||||||||||
| 1. | Klinehoffer | .327 | 1. | Bostater | 31 | 1. | Kasberg |
22 | 1. | Bostater | 29 | |||
| 2. | Shenfield | .309 | 2. | Shenefield |
30 | 2. | Shenefield | 17 | 2. |
Shenefield | 16 | |||
| 3. | Bostater | .252 |
3. | Kasberg | 28 | 3. | Bostater | 16 | 3. | Kasberg |
10 |
2016 Pitching Leaders - Returners
| Wins |
ERA | Strikeouts |
||||||||
| 1. | Carr | 2 | 1. | Storer | 0.49 | 1. | Storer | 41 | ||
| Maier | 2 | 2. | Maier | 2.03 | 2. | Maier | 25 | |||
| Storer | 2 | 3. | Carr | 3.16 | 3. | Carr | 10 |
Series Notes: The Polar Bears are making their second trip to Aburndale, Fla. to compete in the RussMatt Invitational ... Northern posted a 4-4 record in 2016 at the RussMatt Invitational.
ONU head coach Gene Stechschulte: Stechschulte in his sixth season at ONU with an overall record of 111-81, a winning percentage of .578.