Baseball: Ohio Northern (21-10 Overall, 9-5 OAC) at Bluffton (16-13 Overall, 5-7 HCAC)
Thursday, Apr. 26, 2018 - 4:15 p.m. - Memorial Field - Bluffton, Ohio
Thursday's Preview: The Ohio Northern baseball team will travel to non-conference foe Bluffton at Memorial Field on Thursday afternoon ... The Polar Bears enter the contest following a thrilling 5-2, 1-0 sweep of nationally-ranked Marietta on Saturday afternoon ... Northern got stellar pitching performances from four sophomores in Nate Bye, Scott Beaton, Josh Mohr and Jack Schaller ... After Bye pitched seven innings with four K's and only three hits in game one, Beaton entered and slammed the door to pick up his second win of the season ... In the second contest, Mohr tossed seven innings, fanning five batters and only allowing four hits before Schaller came in to seal the victory, striking out the final three Pioneer batters to grab his third victory of the season ... Through 31 games, Mohr leads the team and OAC with a 1.18 ERA and ranks 21st nationally in the category ... Beaton is second on the team and ranks fifth in the OAC with a 2.20 ERA ... Junior Austin Frey leads the team and is tied for third in the OAC with five victories on the mound this season ... Senior T.J. Storer currently leads the team and OAC and is tied for fifth nationally with eight saves ... Offensively, senior Hayden Shenefield leads the team and OAC with a .423 batting average ... Shenefield is second on the team with 44 hits, while junior Luke Klinehoffer leads the team and OAC with 51 hits ... Junior Caleb Thomas leads the team with 29 RBI and four home runs ... Bluffton enters the contest riding a 3-game winning streak ... The Beavers are led offensively by junior Colin Gregory ... Gregory has a team-high 41 hits this season and leads the Beavers with 32 runs scored and 11 doubles ... Gregory also leads the team with a .345 batting average ... His 18 RBI ranks second on the team behind teammate and senior Ryan Golden's team-leading 29 RBI ... Golden also has a team-high five home runs ... On the pitchers mound, junior Dante D'Andrea leads the team with a 5-2 record ... D'Andrea also leads the team with a 2.29 ERA and 33 K's ... Sophomore Tommy Siemer currently ranks second on the team with 29 K's.
Batting Leaders
| Batting Ave. | Hits | Runs | RBIs | |||||||||||
| 1. | Shenefield | .423 | 1. | Klinehoffer | 51 | 1. | Klinehoffer | 37 | 1. | Thomas | 29 | |||
| 2. | Klinehoffer | .381 | 2. | Shenefield | 44 | 2. | Kasberg | 22 | 2. | Klinehoffer | 23 | |||
| 3. | Kasberg | .347 | 3. | Thomas | 38 | 3. | J. Burkett | 20 | 3. | Shenefield | 19 |
Pitching Leaders
| Wins | ERA | Strikeouts | Saves | ||||||||||
| 1. | Frey | 5 | 1. | Mohr | 1.18 | 1. | Mohr | 43 | 1. | Storer | 8 | ||
| 2. | Mohr | 4 | 2. | Beaton | 2.20 | 2. | Schaller | 35 | 2. | Beaton | 2 | ||
| 3. | Bye | 3 | 3. | Bye | 2.65 | 3. | Bye | 31 | |||||
| Schaller | 3 |
Series Notes: ONU leads the all-time series by a 75-35-3 margin ... The Polar Bears have won the last four contests, including a double header sweep in 2017 at Wander Field.
Head coach Gene Stechschulte: Stechschulte in his seventh season at ONU with an overall record of 153-110, a winning percentage of .582.