MARIETTA, Ohio -- Mount Union's baseball team claimed its second ever Ohio Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament title with a 5-4 win over Otterbein Saturday night at Don Schaly Stadium in Marietta.
The Purple Raiders (23-16) win their first conference title since 1970 and claim the conference's automatic bid to next week's NCAA Division III Baseball Championship.
Just like the two games before the title game, the Raiders rallied late to get the win as they scored two runs in the eighth inning to break a 3-3 tie.
With two outs in the eighth, C.J. Stotler (Pittsburgh, Pa./Plum) would get a single then gave way to pinch runner Ben Atkinson (Carrollton/Carrollton) and then score on a triple from Ricky Olasz (West Mifflin, Pa./West Mifflin). Olasz would then score to make it 5-3 as he came home on an infield single from Scott Sherwood (Mentor/Mentor).
Otterbein (26-16) would try to mount a rally of its own in the ninth as they scored a run and had the tying run on second base before Mount Union closer Brandon Bell (Strattonville, Pa./Clarion-Limestone) locked down his league leading fifth save of the season.
Mount Union jumped out to a 3-0 lead with a run in the first on a Connor Mathis (Akron/Firestone) RBI ground-out then two runs in the fourth on a two-run single by Olasz.
Olasz finsihed 3-for-4 in the game with three RBI and had seven hits for tournament to be named Dick Fishbaugh Most Valuable Player.
Gino Ceriani (Ellwood City, Pa./Lincoln) started the game and
went 6.0 innings giving up three runs on five hits before giving
way to Ryan
Sason (Mentor/Lake Catholic), who did not allow a hit over 2.0
innings of work to pick up his second win in as many days.
Ceriani and Sason were also named to the All-Tournament team with Sean Mohney (Lodi/Cloverleaf), Lee Grosscup (Green/Green) and Justin Jakubik (Strongsville/Strongsville).
Adam Collier took the loss on the mound for Otterbein as he allowed only two earned runs over 7.2 innings while Wes Meadows and Sean Kettering each drove in two runs.
Mount Union will wait for word from the NCAA on Monday where and when it will play this coming week.