McMann becomes all-time career hits leader as Baseball sweeps doubleheader with John Carroll in dramatic fashion
By Wes Mayberry
ADA — With four hits on Saturday, fifth-year senior Corey McMann (Flower Mound, Tex./Liberty Christian) broke the school record for career hits as the Ohio Northern baseball team secured a 6-5, 10-7 doubleheader sweep of John Carroll at Wander Field.
The Polar Bears have won seven straight games and improve to 19-9 overall and 7-3 in the Ohio Athletic Conference while dropping the Blue Streaks to 18-9, 7-3.
McMann entered Saturday's doubleheader with 194 career hits, which was three shy of the school record of 197 set by Scott Bush from 1998 to 2001. He tallied one hit in Game 1 and got three more in Game 2, breaking Bush's mark on a ninth-inning single in Northern's eventual 13-inning victory.
McMann also holds the school record for career doubles with 47.
Freshmen Robbie Reed (Goshen, Ky./Trinity) and Chase Armstrong (Louisville, Ky./Trinity) were other offensive standouts for ONU.
Reed was 6-of-9 at the plate with a double and an RBI, and Armstrong had a pair of home runs, including the game-winner, to go with five RBIs in Game 2.
The Polar Bears won both of Saturday's games in walk-off fashion.
After JCU had taken a 3-0 lead in Game 1, Northern tied the score in the bottom of the third inning. RBI doubles from junior Logan Stevens (Plain City/Jonathan Alder) and senior Jacob Wenning (Coldwater) sandwiched a run scoring on a balk.
ONU took a 5-3 lead in the fourth on a 2-RBI single from sophomore Joey Kennedy (Sterling Heights, Mich./Foley Catholic).
The Blue Streaks added a run on an ONU error in the fifth and got a game-tying solo homer from Joe Olsavsky in the eighth.
In the ninth, Reed hit a one-out double, and Kennedy drew a walk to put runners on first and second. Stevens followed with a single, and Reed came home to score the winning run courtesy of a JCU throwing error.
Sophomore Blake Peterson (Belle Center/Benjamin Logan) pitched the final 1.2 innings for ONU, allowing just one hit and striking out two en route to earning the win and improving to 3-0 on the season.
Game 2 proved just as exciting as the first.
A two-run homer from McMann put ONU up 3-1 in the first inning, and an RBI single from Reed made it 4-1 in the second.
JCU answered with a 2-RBI double from Jack Harmon in the top of the third frame, but the Polar Bears came right back with a two-run homer from Armstrong in the bottom half.
The Blue Streaks tied the game at 6-6 on an RBI single from Logan Lamere in the fourth, and the deadlock remained through the end of regulation.
JCU broke the tie with an RBI single from Jack Beiter in the top of the 11th, but ONU answered with an RBI single from senior Vinny Sclafani (Oak Brook, Ill./Hinsdale Central) in the home half to extend the game.
With the score still tied at 7-7, Wenning opened the bottom of the 13th by drawing a walk, and he advanced to second when senior Nate Webb (Bath, Ind./Union County) was hit by a pitch.
That brought Armstrong to the plate, and the freshman delivered, hitting the walk-off three-run homer to right field.
Northern finished the day with 24 total hits to JCU's 20.
The Polar Bears' game against Denison on Sunday has been postponed. They will return to action on Wednesday for a doubleheader at OAC foe Otterbein beginning at 1 p.m.
