Baseball: Ohio Northern (13-9 Overall, 1-3 OAC) at Muskingum (12-6 Overall, 2-2 OAC)

Friday, April 7, 2023, 1 p.m. – Mose Morehead Field, New Concord, Ohio

Friday's Preview: Ohio Northern continues Ohio Athletic Conference play on Friday with a doubleheader at Muskingum … The Polar Bears are coming off Tuesday's 6-4 home win over Bluffton …  Junior Logan Stevens tallied a team-high three hits, and fifth-year senior Corey McMann added a two-run homer … On the mound, sophomore Blake Altaffer improved to 3-0 on the season after allowing two earned runs and striking out three over seven innings … Through 22 games this season, sophomore Joey Kennedy leads ONU with a .356 batting average followed by Stevens (.313) and senior Nate Webb (.301) … Kennedy also has a team-best 15 runs and ranks third in the Ohio Athletic Conference with 11 steals … Stevens has a team-best 26 hits and 17 RBIs… Stevens and Webb have a team-best four home runs each, which is tied for ninth in the OAC … Altaffer (1.71) and senior Jack Hutchins (2.00) rank second and fourth, respectively, in the OAC in ERA among qualified pitchers … Senior Tim Knapschaefer ranks eighth in the OAC in strikeouts (31) … Sophomore Vaughn Duncan has an OAC-best seven saves … Knapschaefer has 128 career strikeouts, which ranks 20th in program history … McMann ranks fourth all-time at ONU with 187 career hits … McMann ranks third all-time at ONU with 45 career doubles, which is one shy of the program record of 46 shared by Luke Klinehoffer and Scott Bush … Senior Jacob Wenning ranks 45th all-time at ONU with 122 career hits … Muskingum is coming off dropping both games of a doubleheader to John Carroll on Sunday, falling 9-3 and 15-6 … Through 18 games, Weston Melick (.473) and Dominic Gorence (.400) lead the Muskies in batting average … Melick leads the OAC in batting average and doubles (13) and ranks sixth in hits (35) and has a team-high 22 RBIs … Wyatt Reeder leads MU with 10 steals … On the mound, Blake Jodrey is 2-0 with a 3.32 ERA in 19 innings, and Jason Murphy is 2-0 with a 3.91 ERA … Jake Roshau has a team-high 24 strikeouts.

Ohio Northern Batting Leaders

Ohio Northern Pitching Leaders

All-Time Series: Ohio Northern leads the all-time series with Muskingum by a 47-33 margin, including a 21-17 mark in New Concord … ONU has won seven straight meetings, including a home doubleheader sweep by scores of 23-13 and 11-10 last season.

Head Coach Gene Stechschulte: Stechschulte is in his 12th season at the helm of the Ohio Northern baseball team … He has a 240-183 record, a winning percentage of .567.