Sunday-Saturday, March 1-7, 2020 - RussMatt Invitational, Auburndale, Fla.
Invitational Preview: The Ohio Northern baseball team travels to Auburndale, Fla., for the RussMatt Invitational beginning Sunday … The Polar Bears will battle Waynesburg (Pa.), St. John Fisher (N.Y.), Muhlenberg (Pa.), St Mary's (Minn.) and Albion (Mich.) over the course of the seven-day invitational … The Polar Bears own an 0-3 record after dropping all three games at the Derby City Classic last weekend … Northern hit a home run in each of the three games, as junior Mathew Burkett, sophomore Sam Zeleznik and freshman Jacob Wenning all went yard … Burkett did much more with the bat, logging five more hits, including one double … He boasts a team-best .429 average with three RBIs … Junior Andy Mills batted .417 over the weekend with one triple, one double and an RBI … Sophomore Corey McMann hit .364 with two doubles and an RBI, and junior Krue Thwaits batted .333 with one run batted in … The Polar Bears — who average 4.7 runs per game — are collectively hitting .271, boasting a slugging percentage of .439 average … Northern got good run out of its bullpen … Freshman Tim Knapschaefer tossed three-innings of hitless baseball with two strikeouts in his collegiate debut … Senior Troy Wagner twirled three innings of relief with one K, while senior Scott Beaton made two appearances and surrendered zero earned runs with one strikeout … Jack Schaller made one start — going 4.2 innings — yielded zero runs, but took the loss as he was the victim of multiple fielding errors … Nate Bye also logged a solid start, tossing five innings of two-run baseball with five Ks against Dubuque … The Polar Bears have a team ERA of 3.96 … St. John's Fisher enters the invitational at 2-0, while Muhlenberg holds a 2-1 record … Every other team that the Polar Bears square off with comes to Florida having yet played a game.
2020 Ohio Northern Batting Leaders:
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Batting Ave. |
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Hits |
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Runs |
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RBIs |
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| 1. |
Burkett |
.429 |
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1. |
Burkett |
6 |
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1. |
Burkett |
3 |
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1. |
Wenning |
4 |
| 2. |
Mills |
.417 |
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2. |
Mills |
5 |
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2. |
McMann |
2 |
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2. |
Burkett |
3 |
| 3. |
McMann |
.364 |
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3. |
McMann |
4 |
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2. |
Mills |
2 |
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3. |
Zeleznik |
2 |
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3. |
Thwaits |
4 |
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2. |
Thwaits |
2 |
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2. |
Wenning |
2 |
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2020 Ohio Northern Pitching Leaders:
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Wins |
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ERA (Min. 3 Inn.) |
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Strikeouts |
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Saves |
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N/A |
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1. |
Schaller |
0.00 |
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1. |
Bye |
5 |
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N/A |
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| |
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1. |
Knapschaefer |
0.00 |
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2. |
Schaller |
4 |
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| |
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1. |
Wagner |
0.00 |
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3. |
Dodson |
3 |
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All-Time Series: Ohio Northern owns a 6-3 all-time record versus Albion … The Polar Bears have won their only meeting with St. Mary's … Northern is 1-2 all-time against St. John's Fisher, and 0-2 all-time against Muhlenburg … ONU has never faced Waynesburg before.
Head Coach Gene Stechschulte: Stechschulte is in his ninth season at the helm of the Ohio Northern baseball team … He owns a 182-136 record, a .572 winning percentage.
