ONU Baseball sweeps a pair from Johnson & Wales (R.I.)

ORLANDO, Fla. — Ohio Northern scored four times in the bottom of the seventh to take Game 1 of a double-header sweep over Johnson & Wales (R.I.) Tuesday afternoon in Orlando, Fla.

The Polar Bears (2-1) cameback to win the first game 11-10 and used a strong pitching performance from senior Mark Sankovich to win game two, 5-1.

With the Polar Bears leading 2-1 in the first game, Johnson & Wales (1-3) used four hits and three Polar Bear errors to score nine times in the top of the fifth to take a commanding 10-2 lead.

ONU answered with four in the bottom half of the inning on RBI hits from sophomores Brandon Hubbard and Brett Katana and a sacrifice fly from Loren Fleischman.

Northern added another run in the sixth and headed to the bottom seventh trailing 10-7.

Freshman Chris Sobieray started the inning with a walk followed by a Katana single and a Fleischman hit-by-pitch to load the bases.

Sophomore Jeff Pope then smacked a two-run single to right to to pull ONU with one at 10-9.

Following a Regan Teague double play that scored Fleischman to tie the game at 10-10, sophomore Matt Rader singled and stole second.

Freshman Mike Hoelzel then stepped to the plate and delivered the game-winning single to center to give the Polar Bears the come from behind victory.

Junior Brian Hill started for ONU, going 4 2/3 innings giving up 10 runs on seven hits.

He gave way to senior Nick Simoff (1-0) who allowed just one hit in the final 2 1/3 innings to pick up the win.

Josh Hodge (0-1) took the loss for the Wildcats giving up five runs on six hits in relief of starter Bobby Gilbert, who went 4 1/3, giving up six runs on six hits while striking out three.

Offensively, Katana was 3-for-4 with and RBI and three runs scored.

Hubbard, Hoelzel and Gibbons all had two hits while each scored a run and drove in a run.

Mike Manley led J&W with a home run and two runs scored.

In game two, Sankovich (1-0) made his first start of the season and turned in a gem, throwing a complete game and allowing one unearned one on four hits while striking out four.

At the plate, Fleischman was 2-for-4 with two runs batted in.

He had a total of four RBIs on the day.

Sophomore Drew Robinson and junior catcher Mike Henfling were each 2-for-3 with an RBI.

Northern wasted no time in jumping on Wildcats starter Nick Marine (0-1) as Fleischman and Robinson had back-to-back RBI hits in the top of the first to put ONU out in front 2-0.

J&W got an unearned run in the fifth but the Polar Bears scored twice in the top of the sixth and added an insurance run in the seventh and would cruise to the 5-1 victory.

ONU continues its Florida trip Wednesday as it takes on Rose-Hulman (Ind.) at 11 am.