Baseball drops slugfest to nonconference foe Wittenberg
By: Andrew Korba
ADA -- Sophomore Dan Belliveau went 2-for-3 with five RBI's to lead the Ohio Northern baseball team in a 13-8 loss to nonconference foe Wittenberg on Wednesday afternoon at Wander Field.
The Polar Bears are now 17-19 on the season, while the Tigers are 22-14.
Northern struck for two runs in the first inning to jump out to an early lead.
Senior Devin Kisor led off with a single and moved to second on a walk by senior Tom Walton.
Sophomore Jack LaMarca singled up the middle to score Kisor, and LaMarca and Walton moved up a base when the centerfielder bobbled the ball.
Belliveau followed with a sac fly to make it 2-0, in favor of Northern.
ONU would add four more runs in the second inning.
Walton ripped an RBI single that scored freshman Zack Niekamp.
Belliveau would come up with the bases loaded and hit a flare to right field that fell in between three fielders and scored all three runners to make it 6-0.
But the Tigers exploded in the third inning, scoring six runs to tie the game back up at 6-6.
Wittenberg would jump in front 7-6 on an RBI single in the fourth and tacked on two more runs in the sixth to make it 9-6.
The Polar Bears would get a run back in the sixth on an RBI single from LaMarca that scored sophomore Derek Lenardos.
But the Tigers scored three more runs in the eighth to expand their lead to 12-7.
Northern got a run back in the eighth on a RBI single by Belliveau that scored freshman Cody Meyer.
But the Tigers got a run in the ninth to put the game away.
Ohio Northern will close out its regular season on Saturday with a visit to John Carroll for a double header that begins at 1 pm.