Sankovich, Wieland dominant as ONU sweeps Capital 7-2, 7-1

COLUMBUS — Senior starting pitchers Mark Sankovich and Drew Wieland each had dominating performances on the mound to lead the Ohio Northern baseball team to a sweep of Capital on Monday at Clowson Field.

Sankovich gave up no earned runs en route to pitching his seventh complete game of the season as ONU won Game 1, 7-2.

Wieland also didn't give up an earned run in eight innings of work as ONU defeated Capital, 7-1, in Game 2.

The wins improved ONU to 14-18 overall and 6-6 in the Ohio Athletic Conference, while the Crusaders dropped to 9-21 overall and 2-12 in the OAC.

The pitching wasn't the only bright spot for ONU, either, as the offense cranked out 11 hits in Game 1 and 13 hits in Game 2.

Sophomore Greg Gibbons finished the day 5-for-8 and while sophomores Brandon Aselage, Brett Katana, Drew Robinson and freshmen Eric Stegman, Adam Grof, Chris Sobieray and Adam Yunker had two-hit games.

In Game 1, Sankovich (7-2) gave up only three hits and three walks in seven innings.

Katana hit a double to score Gibbons in the first inning as ONU jumped out to a 1-0 lead.

The Polar Bears added two more scores in the second.

Sophomore Brandon Hubbard hit a sacrifice fly to score sophomore Jeff Pope and Aselage smacked an RBI double.

The Crusaders made the score 3-2 on a two-run single by Jeremy Meizlish in the bottom of the second.

Northern put Game 1 away with four runs in the fourth, though.

Stegman and Sobieray led off the inning with singles and scored when Gibbons and Aselage hit RBI singles.

Robinson followed with a two-run double to put ONU up 7-2.

Gibbons went 3-for-3 in Game 1.

Matt Uy dropped to 1-5 on the mound for Capital.

In Game 2, Wieland (3-4) struck out eight to increase his OAC-leading total to 66. Gibbons' two-run single broke a 1-1 tie in the seventh inning of Game 2.

Northern added three more runs in the eighth as Yunker and Sobieray hit RBI singles and Hubbard hit a sacrifice fly to put ONU up 6-1.

Robinson led off the ninth with his ONU-leading fifth home run of the season to add the exclamation point to the 7-1 win.

Robinson had a hit in both games to increase his hit streak to 10 games.

Robinson leads ONU in batting (.367), doubles (9), HRs (5) and RBI (21).

Sankovich (2.25) and Wieland (3.24) lead ONU in ERA. ONU returns to action Wednesday for a doubleheader against Otterbein at 1 p.m. in Westerville.