Pitching performances by Austin Price and Justin Good lead Baseball to doubleheader sweep of Goshen (Ind.)
By Jay Garneau
GOSHEN, Ind. - The Ohio Northern baseball team used solid pitching outings by freshman Austin Price and sophomore Justin Good to sweep Goshen (Ind.) in a doubleheader 7-2 and 7-0 at the Goshen College Baseball Complex Sunday afternoon.
With the wins, the Polar Bears improve to 7-1 overall, while the Maple Leafs fall to 4-11.
Price tossed five scoreless innings, allowing only four baserunners and striking out four to pick up the win in Game 2, while Good gave up two earned runs and struck out five in five innings.
With his win, Price improves to 2-0 and has yet to give up a run in nine innings pitched on the year. Good improves to 1-0 on the season.
Ohio Northern started off the scoring right away in Game 1, as senior Matt Rader reached on an infield single to third base and fellow senior Greg Gibbons walked. After advancing on a groundout, both runners scored on a two-run single by junior Erik Stegman.
The Polar Bears picked up another run in the second to increase the lead to 3-0.
Senior Loren Fleischman reached base with a single, and was able to advance to third on an error and a wild pitch, before being knocked in by Rader's fielder's choice.
ONU continued the pressure in the third, scoring three more runs on RBI singles by sophomore Matt Hampshire, sophomore Eric Yunker and Fleischman to make it a 6-0 game.
Goshen picked up runs in the bottom of the third and fifth frames, before ONU added their last insurance run in the sixth, on an RBI single by senior Brett Katana to knock in Rader.
Sophomore Jacob Drerup closed out the last two innings, throwing two scoreless innings, allowing just one walk while fanning two batters.
In Game 2, the Polar Bears scored all their runs in the second and third innings.
Stegman, Katana and Ward were all able to reach base before a Goshen error allowed Stegman to score. Eric Yunker doubled to drive in two runs, and Rader then scored on a wild pitch after reaching base via a fielder's choice to make it a 4-0 game.
The next inning, Stegman singled and Katana walked to start the ONU rally. After moving up on a passed ball, Ward drove in both runners on a single. A walk by sophomore Mark Hayes was followed with an RBI single by Rader to round out the Polar Bear scoring.
Price, who only allowed one baserunner on a walk through four innings, faced his only trouble in the bottom of the fifth.
After allowing three straight singles, Price forced a 5-2-3 double play to pick up the first two outs, then forced another groundout to get out of trouble.
Freshmen Craig Leopold and Josh Gratsch pitched a scoreless sixth inning and seventh inning, respectively, to help preserve the shutout for Ohio Northern.
Katana had two hits on the day to continue moving up the ranks in ONU's career hit list. Katana now has 134, moving into sole possession of 22nd all time.
The Polar Bears will return to action Friday, when they travel to take on Bluffton in a twinbill beginning at 2 pm.