By: Jay Garneau
BEREA – The Ohio Northern baseball team utilized a trio of big innings to defeat Baldwin-Wallace 11-6 in the opening game of an Ohio Athletic Conference doubleheader at Heritage Field on Saturday afternoon.
ONU moves to 12-19 overall and 5-8 in the OAC. The Yellow Jackets, who won the second game 5-2 and are sitting just outside the D3Baseball.com Top 25, are now 25-9 overall and 9-5 in the league.
Senior Josh Murphy went 2-for-4 with a triple, three RBIs and a pair of runs scored to lead the ONU offense in the opener.
Fellow senior Cody Fisher (1-3) picked up the win, allowing three runs (one earned) in 5.2 innings, while David Redovian (5-3) took the loss for B-W.
In the first inning, senior Matt Hampshire hit an RBI single, with a second run scoring on an error, before a Murphy RBI fielder's choice gave ONU a 3-0 lead.
Baldwin-Wallace scored a run in the second, but ONU responded with three runs on a Murphy RBI single, RBI groundout from junior Devin Kisor and an RBI double from sophomore Brian Thomas, pushing the lead to 6-1.
The Yellow Jackets scored another run in the bottom of the third, but ONU again answered with several runs of its own.
Junior Cory Martin hit an RBI single, setting up a two-run triple for Murphy, who then scored on an RBI single from senior Mark Hayes, making the score 10-2.
B-W scored a run on an Eric Murphy RBI single, making it 10-3.
ONU scored its last run in the top of the seventh inning, when senior Eric Yunker singled in sophomore Tyler Deitering, pushing the lead to 11-2.
The Yellow Jackets cut the lead to 11-6, but sophomore Chris Leiby pitched the final 0.2 innings and didn't allow a hit, closing out the ONU win.
Both Martin and Deitering finished the game a perfect 2-for-2, also combining for three walks.
In the nightcap, Baldwin-Wallace scored four runs, three of them unearned, over the first three innings, and ONU wasn't able to close the distance.
Murphy singled in Deitering in the sixth inning, cutting the deficit to 4-1.
B-W added an insurance run in the seventh on a Ryan Nordquist RBI single, increasing the lead back to four runs.
Yunker hit an RBI groundout in the ninth, but it wasn't enough as B-W completed the 5-2 victory.
Jon Capadona was solid on the mound for B-W, tossing 6.2 innings, allowing one run, six hits and two walks while striking out four to improve to 4-1, while Jon Tenley earned his seventh save of the year with 2.1 innings in relief.
Junior Austin Price (1-4) was the tough-luck loser, allowing one earned run (three unearned) over 5.1 innings.
Freshman Dan Belliveau finished the game 4-for-5 for ONU.
The Polar Bears will return home on Wednesday, hosting Defiance in a non-conference game at 4 p.m.