Baseball: Bluffton (7-7 Overall) at Ohio Northern (12-6 Overall)
Thursday, March 30, 2023, 4:15 p.m. – Wander Field, Ada, Ohio
Thursday's Preview: Ohio Northern is hosting a non-conference game against Bluffton on Thursday … The Polar Bears are coming off Tuesday's 5-3 win at Trine (Ind.) … Senior Nate Webb sparked the offense with a three-run home run … Junior Logan Stevens and sophomore Sam Harrison had two hits each … Sophomore Blake Altaffer improved to 2-0 on the mound after allowing one earned run on seven hits and one walk while striking out four … Junior Kaidan Domer pitched 1.2 scoreless innings and gave way to sophomore Vaughn Duncan, who pitched a scoreless final 1.1 innings to earn his sixth save of the season, which leads the Ohio Athletic Conference … Through 18 games this season, sophomore Joey Kennedy leads ONU with a .413 batting average followed by Webb (.316) and fifth-year senior Corey McMann (.300) … Kennedy ranks fifth in the OAC in batting average and third in stolen bases (11) and leads the team with 14 runs … McMann has a team-best 21 hits, followed by Stevens (20) and Kennedy (19) … Stevens and Webb have a team-best three home runs each, and Stevens has a team-high 14 RBIs … Altaffer (1.40) and senior Jack Hutchins (1.48) rank second and third, respectively, in the OAC among qualified pitchers in ERA … Senior Tim Knapschaefer is tied for eighth in the OAC in strikeouts (25) … Knapschaefer has 122 career strikeouts, which is tied for 20th in program history … McMann ranks fourth all-time at ONU with 185 career hits and is a career .329 hitter … McMann ranks third all-time at ONU with 45 career doubles, which is one shy of the program record of 46 shared by Luke Klinehoffer and Scott Bush … Senior Jacob Wenning is tied for 47th all-time at ONU with 119 career hits and is a career .329 hitter … Bluffton is coming off Tuesday's 4-2 home win over Anderson (Ind.) … Through 14 games, senior Jack Towell (.357) and sophomore Justin Maurer (.347) lead the Beavers in batting average … Towell has a team-high 20 hits, two home runs and 21 RBIs … On the mound, senior Carson Curnutte has a 7.29 ERA with 22 strikeouts, and sophomore Andrew Collinsworth has a 3.24 ERA with 19 strikeouts.
Ohio Northern Batting Leaders
| Batting Avg. | Hits | Runs | RBI | |||||||||||
| 1. | Kennedy | .413 | 1. | McMann | 21 | 1. | Kennedy | 14 | 1. | Stevens | 14 | |||
| 2. | Webb | .316 | 2. | Stevens | 20 | 2. | Reed | 11 | 2. | Webb | 12 | |||
| 3. | McMann | .300 | 3. | Kennedy | 19 | Webb | 11 | 3. | Wenning | 11 | ||||
| Wenning | 11 |
Ohio Northern Pitching Leaders
| Wins | ERA (Min. 10 Inn.) | Strikeouts | ||||||||
| 1. | Hutchins | 3 | 1. | Altaffer | 1.40 | 1. | Knapschaefer | 25 | ||
| 2. | Altaffer | 2 | 2. | Duncan | 1.42 | 2. | Hutchins | 22 | ||
| Peterson | 2 | 3. | Hutchins | 1.48 | 3. | Altaffer | 19 | |||
All-Time Series: Ohio Northern leads the all-time series with Bluffton by a 101-40-6 margin, including a 60-18-2 mark in Ada … The teams split their two meetings in 2022, as ONU won 8-4 in Ada and fell 24-9 in Bluffton.
Head Coach Gene Stechschulte: Stechschulte is in his 12th season at the helm of the Ohio Northern baseball team … He has a 239-180 record, a winning percentage of .570.
