Six Polar Bears named All-OAC in Baseball for 2022
By Wes Mayberry
| 2022 All-OAC Baseball Team (.pdf) |
ADA — Six Ohio Northern baseball players were named All-Ohio Athletic Conference for the 2022 season in voting conducted by the league's 10 head coaches.
Juniors Jacob Wenning (Coldwater) and Tim Knapschaefer (Maria Stein/Marion Local) and freshman Ethan Spears (Oregon/Clay) were selected to the All-Conference Second Team.
Seniors Corey McMann (Flower Mound, Tex./Liberty Christian) and Chayten Overholt (Delphos/Lincolnview) and junior Nate Webb (Bath, Ind./Union County) were All-Conference Honorable Mention selections.
Wenning, an All-OAC Honorable Mention honoree as a sophomore in 2021, tallied a team-high 57 hits and ranked second with a .352 batting average in 40 games this season.
The third baseman was named the OAC Hitter of the Week on March 28 and finished the year with 15 doubles, one triple and six home runs to go with 33 RBIs and 33 runs scored.
He tied for 10th all-time on ONU's single-season hits list, and his 15 doubles ranks seventh.
Wenning joined ONU's 100-Hit Club this season and will enter his senior year with 102 career hits along with a .346 average and 58 RBIs.
Knapschaefer led the ONU pitching staff with five wins and 69 strikeouts in 2022 and was named the OAC Pitcher of the Week on March 28.
He tallied a career-high 13 strikeouts in a win at Heidelberg on April 30 and finished the season with a 5-4 record while ranking sixth in the OAC in strikeouts and seventh in ERA (3.83) spanning 54 innings over 10 starts on the mound.
Knapschaefer has pitched in 21 games, including 14 starts, spanning 85.2 innings in his career and will enter his senior season with 97 strikeouts and a 4.31 ERA.
Spears, an outfielder, played in 33 games this season and led the team with a .395 batting average and 11 stolen bases.
He notched 47 hits, including eight doubles, one triple and nine home runs, to go with 30 RBIs.
McMann finished 2022 with a .340 batting average and 52 total hits, including 14 doubles, one triple and four home runs, in 39 games. He was a First Team All-Conference selection in 2021 when he hit a single-season school record 20 doubles.
An All-Conference selection at designated hitter this year, McMann is a career .333 hitter with 13 home runs, 97 RBIs and 84 runs scored in 125 games.
He ranks tied for 10th all-time at ONU with 164 career hits and is third with 44 doubles.
Overholt finished the year with a team-high 19 doubles and three triples along with three home runs as part of his 54 hits while adding 31 RBIs and batting .325 in 40 games at shortstop.
A Second Team All-OAC selection in 2021, Overholt joined ONU's 100-Hit Club this season and ranks second all-time on the program's single-season doubles list.
He closed the season with an 8-for-11 showing at the plate with three doubles, three home runs, nine RBIs and six runs scored in a doubleheader against Wilmington that earned him OAC Hitter of the Week honors.
Overholt ranks tied for 41st in program history with 127 hits and tied for 10th with 31 doubles. The career .322 hitter has also tallied seven triples, four home runs, 62 RBIs and 82 runs scored in 108 games.
Webb finished 2022 with a team-high 10 home runs, which ranks tied for sixth on ONU's all-time single-season list and is fourth in the OAC this season.
The first baseman hit three home runs in a win over Oberlin on May 1 and totaled 12 doubles and one triple as part of his 47 hits spanning 40 games this season. He hit .311 and tallied 37 RBIs and 34 runs scored.
Webb will enter his senior season as a career .307 hitter with 70 hits, including 17 doubles, one triple and 13 home runs, along with 52 RBIs and 48 runs scored over 66 games.
The Polar Bears finished 19-21 overall and 7-11 in the OAC this season under 11th-year head coach Gene Stechschulte.