Baseball: OAC Tournament - Ohio Northern (27-13 Overall) at OAC Tournament at Otterbein
Thurs., May 10 - Sat., May 12, 2018 - Fishbaugh Field - Westerville, Ohio
This Weekend's Preview: The Ohio Northern baseball team will make its first appearance in the Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament since 2000 as it enters the tournament as the No. 4 seed ... After dropping its final two contests of the regular season, Northern fell into a 3-way ti for third place in the OAC standings ... The Polar Bears earned the No. 4 seed in the tournament due to the leagues tiebreaker rules, giving Northern its first conference postseason berth in nearly two decades ... Ohio Northern will take on No. 1 seed and host Otterbein in the opening contest of the tournament at noon on Thursday afternoon at Fishbaugh Field ... The winner of that contest will then move on to take on the winner of a contest against No. 2-seeded Marietta and No. 3 seed Baldwin Wallace on Friday morning ... Northern will make its 17th appearance in the tournament this season and will look to challenge for its fifth OAC Tournament title in school history ... In ONU's last appearance in the tournament in 2000, the team finished as runners-up after falling to Marietta ... Northern's last OAC Tournament title came in 1983, its second title in back-to-back seasons ... Northern owns a 22-27 record in the tournament in its 16 previous appearances ... Senior Hayden Shenefield ended the regular season as the OAC's batting average champion (.437), while teammate and junior Luke Klinehoffer was second in the league, hitting .402 ... Junior Caleb Thomas leads the team with 37 RBI entering the tournament ... On the pitchers mound, sophomore Josh Mohr leads the team and ranks second in the OAC with a 1.93 ERA and leads the team and is fifth in the conference with 57 K's ... Junior Austin Frey leads the team and is tied for second in the OAC with seven victories, while senior closer T.J. Storer leads the OAC and ranks sixth nationally with 10 saves this season ... Otterbein will make its 23rd appearance in the OAC tournament, second only to Marietta's 46 OAC tournament appearances ... Baldwin Wallace will make its 21st appearance in the tournament ... The Cardinals are 34-35 all-time in the tournament and have won six titles, while the Pioneers are 106-39 in the tournament with 31 titles and the Yellow Jackets are 23-27 with one tournament title.
Batting Leaders
| Batting Ave. | Hits | Runs | RBIs | |||||||||||
| 1. | Shenefield | .437 | 1. | Klinehoffer | 68 | 1. | Klinehoffer | 47 | 1. | Thomas | 37 | |||
| 2. | Klinehoffer | .402 | 2. | Shenefield | 62 | 2. | Kasberg | 31 | 2. | Klinehoffer | 34 | |||
| 3. | Kasberg | .341 | 3. | Thomas | 48 | 3. | Buckingham | 28 | 3. | J. Burkett | 32 |
Pitching Leaders
| Wins | ERA | Strikeouts | Saves | ||||||||||
| 1. | Frey | 7 | 1. | Mohr | 1.93 | 1. | Mohr | 57 | 1. | Storer | 10 | ||
| 2. | Mohr | 5 | 2. | Beaton | 2.04 | 2. | Frey | 44 | 2. | Beaton | 2 | ||
| 3. | Bye | 4 | 3. | Bye | 2.70 | 3. | Schaller | 39 | 3. | Johnson | 1 | ||
| Schaller | 4 |
Series Notes: Northern is 46-58 all-time against Otterbein ... The Cardinals swept ONU this season ... ONU is 46-50 all-time against Baldwin Wallace after splitting a twinbill this season and the Polar Bears are 20-77 all-time against Marietta after taking two from the Pioneers this season.
Head coach Gene Stechschulte: Stechschulte in his seventh season at ONU with an overall record of 159-113, a winning percentage of .585.
