Robinson homers twice, leads ONU Baseball to split at Manchester (Ind.)

NORTH MANCHESTER, IND. — Ohio Northern sophomore Drew Robinson homered in each game of ONU's double header split with Manchester (Ind.) Thursday afternoon at Gratz Field.

The Polar Bears (5-8) pounded out 12 hits on way to posting an 8-4 victory in game one.

Game two was a pitchers dual that saw the Spartans (6-7) push a run across in the bottom of the seventh for a 2-1 victory.

Robinson finished the day 5-for-7 with two home runs, a double, three runs scored and three runs batted in.

Fellow sophomore Brandon Hubbard was 3-for-7 on the day with a pair of doubles and three runs batted in.

In game one, ONU senior Mark Sankovich picked up his third victory of the season, going the distance for the fourth straight game.

He allowed four runs on eight hits while striking out three.

Manchester's Wes Bucher (0-3) took the loss in relief of starter Nick Seman.

The Spartans started the scoring with a pair of unearned runs in the bottom of the first to take a 2-0 lead.

Northern tied the game in the top of the second on a two-out, two-run double by Hubbard.

The score stayed tied until the top of the fifth when the Polar Bears broke the game open with a five-run rally.

Loren Fleischman started the inning with a single and Brett Katana was hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second.

Robinson then doubled down the right field line to score Fleischman and advance Katana to third.

After an out, freshman Mike Hoelzel tripled to scored both Katana and Robinson and make the score 5-2 in favor of ONU.

Hoelzel later scored on a ground out but Mike Henfling.

With two outs, sophomore Greg Gibbons singled to center and scored on Hubbard's second double of the game.

Robinson's homer an inning later gave Northern an 8-2 lead heading into the seventh.

In the seventh, Manchester strung together four hits and scored a pair of runs but it wasn't enough as Sankovich got the final out to earn an 8-4 win.

The second game started out similar to the first as Manchester got to ONU starter Drew Wieland for a run in the bottom of the first on a Mat Miller home run.

Northern again tied the game in the top of the second on Robinson's second homer of the day.

Wieland then settled down going the next 4 1/3 innings, allowing just two hits while striking out five giving way to senior Nick Simoff in the sixth.

Simoff got the final two outs of the sixth and the teams headed to the seventh with the score still tied at 1-1.

In the bottom of seventh, Simoff walked the first batter and then gave way to sophomore Kevin Sigg.

Sigg got an out but loaded the bases and uncorked a wild pitch that scored pinch runner Ryan Peterson with the game winning run.

Simoff took the loss and is now 1-1 on the season.

Curtis Mallery, who was the sixth Spartan to pitch in game two, earned the win and improves to 2-0 on the season.

The Polar Bears return home for their home opener Friday against St. Francis.

Game one of the double header is scheduled for 1 pm.