Baseball: Ohio Northern (16-18 Overall, 5-9 OAC) at Heidelberg (13-21 Overall, 4-10 OAC)
Saturday, April 30, 2022, 1 p.m. – Peaceful Valley, Tiffin, Ohio
Saturday's Preview: Ohio Northern is traveling to Heidelberg on Saturday for an Ohio Athletic Conference doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m. … The Polar Bears are coming off Thursday's 8-4 win at Bluffton … Senior Corey McMann led Northern in the victory, going 3-for-5 at the plate with a double and 3 RBIs … Sophomore Dakota Durick and freshman Ethan Spears had 2 hits each … Junior Jack Hutchins got the win on the mound to improve to 3-1 on the season, pitching 2.2 innings and allowing just one hit and striking out two in a relief appearance … Through 34 games, Spears leads the team in batting average (.398) and home runs (8) … Spears is tied for third in the OAC in home runs and ranks ninth in batting average … Junior Jacob Wenning leads the team in hits (51) and RBIs (29) and is second in batting average (.375) … Senior Chayten Overholt has a team-high 29 runs scored … McMann ranks third on the team in batting average (.362) and second in hits (46) … Freshman Joey Kennedy has a team-high 9 stolen bases … McMann has 14 doubles this season and ranks third all-time at ONU with 44 career doubles … McMann is just 2 doubles shy of tying the program record for doubles in a career, which is shared by Luke Klinehoffer and Scott Bush … McMann is tied for 14th in program history with 158 career hits, and Overholt has 111 career hits, which is tied for 52nd all-time … Junior pitcher Tim Knapschaefer has a team-best 48 strikeouts to go with a 3.51 ERA and is tied with Hutchins for the team lead in wins (3) … Knapschaefer ranks fourth in the OAC in ERA and ninth in strikeouts … Heidelberg enters Saturday's doubleheader coming off Wednesday's 7-2 win at Wittenberg … The Student Princes got home runs and 2 RBIs from Camden Farley and Keaton Mark in the victory … Through 34 games, Eric DeVore (.409) and Mark (.324) lead the team in batting average … DeVore has a team-high 56 hits, 13 doubles and 35 RBIs to go with 7 home runs … Mark has a team-high 10 home runs and 18 stolen bases to go with 26 RBIs … Mark ranks second in the OAC in home runs and sixth in steals, and DeVore ranks fourth in the conference in hits and fifth in batting average … On the mound, Cayden Rollins has a team-best 1.80 ERA, and Ross Thompson and Brady Knizer share the team lead in strikeouts (38).
Ohio Northern Batting Leaders
Batting Ave. | Hits | Runs | RBI | |||||||||||
1. | Spears | .398 | 1. | Wenning | 51 | 1. | Overholt | 29 | 1. | Wenning | 29 | |||
2. | Wenning | .375 | 2. | McMann | 46 | 2. | Wenning | 28 | 2. | Webb | 26 | |||
3. | McMann | .362 | 3. | Spears | 39 | 3. | Webb | 25 | 3. | Spears | 25 | |||
Spears | 25 |
Ohio Northern Pitching Leaders
Wins | ERA (Min. 6 Inn.) | Strikeouts | ||||||||
1. | Knapschaefer | 3 | 1. | Truax | 1.86 | 1. | Knapschaefer | 48 | ||
Hutchins | 3 | 2. | Knapschaefer | 3.51 | 2. | Lawrence | 31 | |||
Duncan | 2 | 3. | Heche | 3.81 | 3. | Pitko | 28 | |||
Heche | 2 | |||||||||
Truax | 2 | |||||||||
Lawrence | 2 |
All-Time Series: Ohio Northern leads the all-time series with Heidelberg by an 89-64 margin but is 36-37 on the road … The teams played eight times during the 2021 season with ONU going 5-3 in those matchups.
Head Coach Gene Stechschulte: Stechschulte is in his 11th season at the helm of the Ohio Northern baseball team … He has a 224-171 record, a winning percentage of .567.