Baseball tallies 18 hits in loss at Bluffton

By Wes Mayberry

BLUFFTON — The Ohio Northern baseball team tallied 18 hits Thursday evening but fell 24-9 to Bluffton at Memorial Field.

The Polar Bears drop to 11-11 overall on the season while the Beavers improve to 9-11.

Junior Jacob Wenning (Coldwater) paced the ONU offense with four hits and two RBIs.

Junior Vinny Sclafani (Oak Brook, Ill./Hinsdale Central) and freshmen Sam Sells (Columbus/Olentangy Orange) and Ethan Spears (Oregon/Clay) added two hits each.

Sophomore Logan Stevens (Plain City/Jonathan Alder) got the scoring started with a solo home run in the top of the first inning, and an RBI single from freshman Joey Kennedy (Sterling Heights, Mich./Foley Catholic) highlighted a two-run second frame for the Polar Bears for a 3-1 lead.

But the Beavers responded with four runs in their half of the second frame that ended up giving them the lead for good.

Trailing 5-3, Northern scored a run in the top of the third when junior Nate Webb (Bath, Ind./Union County) came home on a Bluffton error.

The Beavers, who finished with 20 hits and scored in all eight innings in which they got at-bats, came right back with eight runs in the bottom of the third for a 13-4 lead.

That inning was highlighted by a 2-RBI double from Brandon Wilson and a 2-RBI single from Jack Towell.

Bluffton added a run in each of the fourth and fifth innings, four more in the sixth, two in the seventh and three in the eighth.

The Polar Bears scored a run in each of the seventh and eighth frames via a sacrifice fly from senior Sam Zeleznik (Hinckley/Highland) and a single from Wenning and capped the scoring with a three-run ninth on an RBI double from Sclafani and RBI singles from Sells and Wenning.

The Polar Bears return to action on Saturday for a road doubleheader at Ohio Athletic Conference foe John Carroll beginning at 1 p.m.