Baseball celebrates Senior Day with 12-5, 5-2 sweep over Capital

By Caleb Scott

ADA -- The Ohio Northern baseball team celebrated Senior Day as they defeated Capital 12-7, 5-2 on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

The Polar Bears improve to 20-17 overall and 7-9 in the Ohio Athletic Conference, while the Crusaders fall to 16-19, 4-12.

Game two of the double header was called after seven innings due to rain and lightning.

Following the double header, Northern honored seniors Devin Carr (Newark/Licking Valley), Zach Foster (Wayne/Elmwood), Jacob Lochard (Sidney), Zach Maier (Huntsville/Indian Lake), and Casey Mulcahy (Lima/Shawnee).

Juniors Dan Barna (Cranberry Township, Pa./Seneca Valley), Brandon Kasberg (Mentor) and Jordan Bostater (Bryan) and freshman Phil Buckingham (Wayne/Elmwood) each recorded three hits in the game one victory.

In the second contest, Kasberg was 2-for-4 with two RBI and a run scored.

Capital jumped out to an early 5-0 lead through the first three innings of game one.

A 3-run third inning sparked a Polar Bear rally that would pull Northern within 5-3.

After a double from Barna and a single from Buckingham put two on the bases, back-to-back RBI singles from Kasberg and Bostater plated Barna and Buckingham to pull ONU within 5-2.

From there, junior Hayden Shenefield (Worthington/Kilbourne) would hit a fielders choice ground out and plated Bostater to close the gap to 5-3.

After the Polar Bear defense made quick work of CU in the top of the fourth, ONU would use a 4-run fourth inning to take its first lead of the contest. 

Schlade, Barna, Buckingham, Kasberg and Bostater all hit singles, while freshman Caleb Thomas (Strongsville) hit a sac fly in the inning to help Northern take a 7-5 lead.

Northern added five insurance runs in the bottom of the seventh and eighth innings as freshman Scott Beaton (Novi, Mich.), sophomore Luke Klinehoffer (Zanesville/John Glenn), Barna and Shenefield all scored to push the lead to 12-5 and seal the game one victory.

Foster earned the victory on the mound for Northern and improved to 1-1 on the year.

In the second contest Capital scored a quick run before Northern answered with a 2-run first inning to take a 2-1 lead.

CU was able to answer in the top of the second inning to tie the game at 2-2.

After four and a half scoreless innings, Northern took advantage of a CU miscue and scored three times to break the tie and take a 5-2 lead heading into the eighth inning.

From there the contest was called due to rain and lightning.

Freshman Josh Mohr (Oregon/Clay) earned the game two victory for ONU and improved to 3-2 on the year.

The Polar Bears return to action Wednesday evening as they host Ohio Wesleyan in the home finale at Wander Field at 4 pm.