Rodriguez's first career homer leads Baseball to eighth straight win

By: Andrew Korba

SPRINGFIELD -- Senior Daniel Rodriguez hit his first career home run to lead the Ohio Northern baseball team to its eighth consecutive victory by a 8-3 score over Wittenberg on Thursday evening.

The Polar Bears improve to 12-3 on the season, while the Tigers drop to 3-7.

Rodriguez finished the game 2-for-5 with 3 RBI's.

ONU wasted not time, jumping out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning.

Sophomore Andy Lubonovic scored Northern's first run on a wild pitch. Junior Jack LaMarca also moved to third on the play.

Junior Dan Belliveau followed with a walk and a steal of second.

Sophomore Nick Guitar followed with a sac fly, scoring LaMarca.

Rodriguez then came up and blasted his homer to left center for the 4-0 lead.

The Polar Bears scored three more runs in the fourth inning on a 2-RBI single by Belliveau and a RBI double from Guitar, making the score 7-0.

Belliveau has now recorded a hit in every game this season and currently has a 16-game hitting streak, dating back to last season.

Wittenberg scored a run in the fifth and the eighth, but a RBI groundout from Rodriguez made it an 8-2 ONU advantage.

The Tigers would plate a run in the ninth, but senior Matt Magni induced a double play to end the game.

Freshman Devin Carr went seven innings, giving up just one run and striking out four batters, for his second win of the season.

Ohio Northern will return to action on Saturday, when it returns to OAC action with a double header at No. 18 Mount Union, beginning at 1 pm.