Belliveau homers as Baseball tops Defiance 5-4 for seventh straight win
By: Andrew Korba
ADA -- Junior Dan Belliveau blasted his third home run of the season, to lead the Ohio Northern baseball team to a 5-4 win over Defiance on Wednesday afternoon at Wander Field.
The Polar Bears have now won seven in a row and push their record to 11-3, while the Yellow Jackets fall to 7-8.
ONU jumped on the board on a RBI groundout in the first and Belliveau hit a 2-run homer in the fourth inning to make it 3-0, in favor of Northern.
Defiance would plate two runs in the fifth, but ONU would come right back with a RBI groundout by junior Derek Lenardos, to make it 4-2.
The Yellow Jackets would score two more runs in the sixth inning to tie the game at 4-4.
In Northern's half of the seventh, junior Brady Foley drew a 2-out walk.
Junior Jack LaMarca came up and ripped a single through the right side. The ball snuck under the glove of the right fielder, allowing Foley to score and giving the Polar Bears the lead back at 5-4.
Sophomore Alex Crabtree closed the door, pitching a perfect eighth and ninth inning, for his second save of the season.
Senior Chad Smith picked up the win for the Polar Bears and is now 1-0 on the year.
LaMarca paced the Polar Bears, going 3-for-4 in the game.
Ohio Northern will return to action on Thursday, when it travels to take on Wittenberg at 6 pm.
