Baseball gets two dominating pitching performances to sweep Capital in OAC twin-bill 11-0 and 6-0

ADA — The Ohio Northern baseball team got a pair of outstanding pitching performances in an Ohio Athletic Conference double header sweep of Capital on a crisp and sunny Saturday afternoon

Ohio Northern won the opener 11-0 and took the nightcap 6-0.  

The Basics

• Records: Ohio Northern (17-14 overall, 8-6 OAC), Capital (8-23 overall, 2-12 OAC).
• Venue: Wander Field - Ada Ohio.

Game 1 - W, 11-0

• Junior Blake Altaffer (Montpelier) threw a 1-hit shutout, striking out eight, to lead the Polar Bears on the hill in the opener.
• Junior Andrew Stechschulte (Findlay) went 3-for-5 with a run, 2 doubles and 2 RBI.
• Northern scored three times in the bottom of the sixth to open up a 5-0 lead.
• ONU scored again in the seventh to make it 6-0 and got five runs in the eighth to blow the game wide open.
• Sophomore Chase Armstrong (Louisville, Ky./Trinity) scored on a bases-loaded walk by sophomore Robbie Reed (Goshen, Ky./Trinity).
• Stechschulte followed with a 2-run double and freshman Kyle Callahan (Brunswick) had a 2-run double to cap the 5-run rally.
• ONU out-hit CU 13-1 in the game.

Game 2 - W, 6-0

• Three different pitchers combined on a 2-hit shutout as ONU posted back-to-back shutouts.
• Junior Joe Tootle (Powell/Olentangy Liberty) allowed just two hits in 6.1 innings of work to earn the win and improve to 3-0 on the season.
• Senior Kaidan Domer (Orrville) and junior Blake Peterson (Belle Center/Benjamin Logan) each threw 1.1 innings of hitless releief to wrap up the shutout.
• Armstrong had a bases-clearing 3-run double in the bottom of the fourth to give Ohio Northern a 4-0 lead.
• Freshman Zane Pratt (Piqua) had a 2-run single in the sixth to extend the lead to 6-0.
• ONU out-hit CU 7-2 in the nightcap.

Notables

• Stechschulte was 5-for-8 with 2 runs, 3 doubles and 2 RBI on the day.
• The ONU pitching staff limited the Comets to 3 hits in 61 at-bats on the day, a team batting acerage of .049.
• Altaffer is now 4-2 with a 4.44 ERA on the season. This was his first career shutout.
• This was the first time ONU has posted back-to-back shutouts since 2016 and the first time it swept a double header with shutouts since a 3-0, 8-0 sweep of Heidelberg in 1995.
• Junior Joey Kennedy (Sterling Heights, Mich./Foley Catholic), junior Sam Sells (Lewis Center/Olentangy Orange) and Stechschulte lead the team in hitting through 31 games with averages. of .394, .369 and .344, respectively.
• Stechschulte leads the team with 42 hits and is tied with Armstrong for the team lead with 6 home runs each.
• Armstrong leads the squad with 39 RBI and a .613 slugging percentage.
• Ohio Northern is now 76-33-1 all-time against Capital, including a 35-17 record at home and a 23-13 mark at Wander Field.
• Ohio Northern is in its 119th season of baseball. The Polar Bears are 1458-1151 all-time, a winning percentage of .559.
• 13th-year head coach Gene Stechschulte is now 270-203 at Ohio Northern for a winning percentage of .571.

Up Next

• The Polar Bears will return to action on Tuesday night with a non-conference game at Wittenberg at 6:30 pm.