Marietta shows high powered offense in doubleheader sweep over Baseball

By Jay Garneau

ADA - The Ohio Northern baseball team dropped both ends of an Ohio Athletic Conference doubleheader to Marietta at Wander Field Saturday afternoon.

ONU falls to 16-5 (2-2 OAC) while Marietta improves to 20-5 (5-1 OAC), as they won the games by scores of 21-4 and 16-1.

Junior Erik Stegman was a perfect 5-for-5 on the day to lead the Polar Bears.

With the wind blowing out to right field, Marietta was able to drill four three-run homers over the right field wall in Game 1, including two by Chris Beatty and three by the Pioneer lineup in just the fourth inning.

The Pioneers came out firing right away, putting five runs on the board in the top of the first, including a three-run homer by Beatty, and added two more runs in the top of the second.

ONU answered with four runs in the bottom of the second to make it 7-4.

Senior Brett Katana started the rally with a double off the right field wall. After sophomore Eric Yunker was hit by a pitch, senior Loren Fleischman singled through the left side. Back to back RBI infield singles by juniors Erik Stegman and Mike Hoelzel plated Katana and Yunker and a two-run single by Adam Yunker made it 7-4.

Marietta drilled three three-run home runs in the top of the fourth as they scored 10 runs to take a 17-4 advantage.

The Pioneers tacked on three runs in the sixth and another in the seventh to push the lead to 21-4.

Beatty finished the game 3-for-5 with a double, two home runs, and 10 RBIs for Marietta.

Katana and Stegman each had two hits to lead the Polar Bear offense.

Marietta picked up right where they left off to start the second game.

Helped by six hits and four ONU errors, Marietta snagged a 7-0 lead in the first inning.

Senior Matt Rader hit the first pitch of the bottom of the inning over the right field wall for his third home run of the season.

The Pioneers picked up four runs in the third and three more in the fourth to push the lead to 14-1.

Sophomore relievers Justin Good and Jacob Drerup combined for 3.1 scoreless innings, striking out four and allowing just two hits.

Katana's two hits on the day give him 152 in his career, moving him into 11th in ONU history. Gibbons added four hits, totaling 136 in his career and moving into a tie for 21st all time. Fleischman added one hit, giving him 103 in his career, tied for 42nd.

The Polar Bears look to rebound when they travel to No. 3 Heidelberg for another OAC doubleheader Tuesday, with the opener slated to begin at 1 pm.