Hubbard's blast leads ONU Baseball to 7-4 win over St. Vincent (Pa.)

ORLANDO, Fla. — Sophomore Brandon Hubbard belted a three-run homer in the bottom of the third to jump start the Polar Bears to a 7-4 victory over St. Vincent (Pa.) Friday afternoon at Sanford Stadium in Orlando, Fla.

The wins ups the Polar Bear's record to 3-2 on the season while the Bearcats fall to 4-3.

Senior lefthander Drew Wieland (2-0) made his second start of the season for ONU, going 6 1/3 innings, giving up four runs on seven hits and striking out five.

Fellow senior Nick Simoff got the final two outs in relief of Kevin Sigg to pick up the save.

After back-to-back singles by freshman Mike Hoelzel and sophomore Greg Gibbons to start the Polar Bear third, Hubbard knock his first homer of the year to put ONU up 3-0.

Sophomore Loren Fleischman picked up the first of his two RBI on the day with a ground out to cap the inning.

After the Bearcats plated a run in the fourth, Hoezel came through with an RBI single in the sixth to score sophomore Jeff Pope.

Pope had doubled a batter earlier and the Bears were now up 5-1.

Freshman Chris Sobieray tacked on a sacrifice fly later in the inning to push the lead to 6-1.

St. Vincent's Jared Lapkowicz led off the seventh with a home run to start a three-run rally and cut the Polar Bear lead to 6-4 through seven.

Fleischman knocked in Brett Katana with a single in the eighth to stretch the lead to 7-4 and Simoff came in to close out the ninth.

Hoelzel finished the day 3-for-4 with an RBI and Pope ended 2-for-4 with a run scored.

Ben Smith (1-1) took the lose for St. Vincent after pitching five innings and giving up six runs on six hits.

At the plate, Lapkowicz was 2-for-2 with a home run and two RBI for the Bearcats.

The Polar Bears will finish their Florida trip Saturday with a double-header against Milwaukee (Wis.) School of Engineering beginning at noon.