Mangola's three home runs lead Softball to sweep of Wilmington, share of OAC Regular Season title

ADA — Ohio Northern got three home runs from junior All-American Jackie Mangola to sweep Wilmington and win a share of the Ohio Athletic Conference Regular Season Softball title Sunday at the ONU Softball Field.

ONU won the opener 14-1 and took the nightcap 8-1.

The Polar Bears improve to 24-10 overall and 14-4 in OAC play, while the Quakers fall to 13-21, 2-16.

Northern also clinched the top seed and will host the 2011 OAC Tournament next Friday and Saturday at the ONU Softball Field.

The Polar Bears shared the OAC Regular Season crown with John Carroll, who will be the No. 2 seed.

ONU has won the OAC Regular Season title and hosted the OAC Tournament three consecutive seasons and four times in the past five years.

Mangola extended her single-season home run record with her 15th, 16th and 17th long balls of the season.

She now has 37 home runs in her career, just one shy of the ONU record 38 set by her sister, two-time All-American Tina Mangola from 2007-10.

Junior All-American Kimi Blewett and sophomore Meghan Anten also homered for ONU.

Ohio Northern batted around in each of the first three innings to build a 13-1 lead in Game 1.

After Wilmington got a run in the top of the first, the Polar Bears answered with five runs in the home half of the frame, keyed by 2-run singles by sophomore Ashley Sujkowski and junior Katie Cretin.

Mangola drilled her school-record 15th home run in the bottom of the second inning. The 2-run shot to left started a 4-run frame that gave the Polar Bears a 9-1 lead.

Cretin had a 2-out, RBI double in the bottom of the third to score Mangola (who had tripled) to make it 10-1 ONU.

Sophomore Katy Newman followed with a single to up the advantage to 11-1. Anten added a 2-run home run to make it 13-1 Polar Bears.

Junior Maggie Molnar and got the win and improved to 6-4 on the season.

In Game 2, sophomore Alia Brodie's 2-out, 2-run double in the bottom of the second plated freshman Christin Miller and sophomore Michelle Sweet to make it 2-0 Polar Bears.

After Blewett drew a walk, Mangola followed with her third home run of the day and her 17th of the season to put ONU up 5-0.

In the bottom of the third, a Sweet RBI ground out scored freshman pinch-runner Colleen Baliga to make it 6-0.

Blewett drilled her 11th home run of the season to lead off the fourth frame and give the Polar Bears a 7-0 advantage.

Sophomore Katy Newman then singled through the right side to score Mangola and make it an 8-0 lead.

The Quakers got a run in the top of the fifth, but Cretin scored on a wild pitch with one out in the bottom of the sixth to make it a 9-1 lead and end the game on the NCAA's 8-run rule.

Lauren Hurd allowed just one unearned run in five innings the win to improve to 5-2 for ONU.

Ohio Northern will be in action next Friday and Saturday at the OAC Tournament and will face either Mount Union or Baldwin-Wallace in the second game of the day at 1 pm.