Baseball falls to No. 12 Marietta 7-2 on opening day of OAC Tournament
By Tim Glon
BEREA — Ohio Northern opened play in the 2023 Ohio Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament with a 7-2 loss to No. 12-ranked Marietta on a warm and sunny Thursday afternoon at Fisher Field.
The third-seeded Polar Bears (26-14 overall) move into the loser's bracket and will face top-seeded and No. 9-ranked Baldwin Wallace on Friday at 12:30 pm in an elimination game in the double-elimination tournament.
The Pioneers (32-9) advance in the winner's bracket and will face fourth-seeded John Carroll (26-13) on Friday morning at 9:30 am.
JCU defeated BW (31-9) 5-0 in the first game on Thursday.
Senior Jacob Wenning (Coldwater) led the ONU offense with three base hits.
Marietta got off to a quick start, scoring twice in the bottom of the first and three more times in the bottom of the third to grab a 5-0 lead.
MC added single runs in the fourth and seventh frames to extend the lead to 7-0.
Senior Corey McMann (Flower Mound, Tex./Liberty Christian) singled and Wenning doubled with one out in the top of the eighth.
Senior Vinny Sclafani (Oak Brook, Ill./Hinsdale Central) singled home both men as the Polar Bears climbed within 7-2.
Northern had two runners on in the top of the ninth but a double play ended the threat and the game.
Sophomore Blake Altaffer (Montpelier) suffered his first loss of the season on the hill to fall to 8-1 on the year. He struck out five in 6.0 innings, but gave up six runs and 10 hits in the contest.