Baseball drops OAC-opening double header to Heidelberg 8-6, 10-3

By Caleb Scott

ADA — The Ohio Northern baseball team fell 8-6, 10-3 in a pair of Ohio Athletic Conference contests with Heidelberg on Saturday afternoon as Northern hosted HU in a twinbill at Wander Field.

The Polar Bears fall to 10-6 overall and 0-2 in the OAC, while the Student Princes improve to 12-3, 2-0.

In the first contest, Heidelberg was able to get on the board first in the top half of the second inning, scoring two runs.

The Student Princes added to their lead in the top of the third inning, adding two more runs to push the lead to 4-0.

Northern responded in the bottom of the fifth inning, scoring three runs to pull within 4-3.

After junior Luke Klinehoffer (Zanesville/John Glenn) got on base with a single and advanced to second base on a wild pitch, senior Hayden Shenefield (Powell/Worthington Kilbourne) would reach on an HU fielding error and Klinehoffer would score to cut the lead to 4-1.

Sophomore Phil Buckingham (Wayne/Elmwood) would get walked before Shenefield advanced home on a single from senior Jason Burkett (Maumee) to cut the deficit to 4-2.

After senior Kyle Schlade (Hamilton/Talawanda) was walked to load the bases, fellow senior Jordan Bostater (Bryan) would get walked and plate Buckingham to pull Northern within 4-3.

In the top of the seventh inning, Heidelberg would widen their lead, scoring four runs to push the lead to 8-3.

The Polar Bears got one back in the bottom of the seventh inning as Klinehoffer hit a sacrifice fly to left field and plated senior Brandon Kasberg (Mentor) to pull Nothern within 8-4.

Buckingham scored following a single from freshman Krue Thwaits (Greenville/Milton Union) in the bottom of the eighth, before Shenefield plated Klinehoffer in the bottom of the ninth. HU would go on to win 8-6.

In the second contest, freshman Matthew Burkett (Maumee) would hit a 2-RBI single to left center and scored junior Caleb Thomas (Strongsville) and Shenefield to give Northern an early 2-0 lead after one inning.

Heidelberg got on the board in the top of the third inning, tallying two runs to knot the game at 2-2, before adding four more runs in the top of the sixth inning and taking a 6-2 lead.

After HU tallied one more run in the top of the seventh inning, Northern cut the lead to 7-3 as Thwaits scored on a sacrifice fly from Klinehoffer in the bottom of the seventh.

Heidelberg added three more insurance runs as it went on to claim game two, 10-3

The Polar Bears return to action Monday afternoon at 4 p.m. as they welcome Trine (Ind.) to Wander Field.