ALLIANCE, Ohio -- Mount Union's baseball team combined to score 33 runs in a 19-9 and 14-4 sweep of Ohio Northern Sunday in an Ohio Athletic Conference doubleheader at 23rd Street Field in Alliance.
The Purple Raiders have now won five games in a row and their 21 wins on the season are the most since winning 22 in 2006. Mount Union also kept pace with Baldwin-Wallace and Muskingum as the three teams are tied for second place in the conference at 5-3.
In the opener, Mount Union scored a season-high 19 runs but rallied twice before putting the game away.
Sophomores Lee Grosscup (Green/Green) and Evan Knott (Canton/GlenOak) each drove in three runs while fellow sophomore Zach Carlino (Pittsburgh, Pa./Central Catholic) went 4-for-4, scored four runs and drove in a pair.
Sophomore Mike Horning (Avon/Avon) got the win in relief as he allowed only four hits over three innings to go to 3-1 on the season.
Ohio Northern (8-18, 2-7 OAC) had a 2-0 lead as the Polar Bears pushed a pair of runs across in the first inning.
The Raiders got a run back in the second inning and took the lead in the third taking advantage of two Polar Bear errors to plate six runs (five unearned) to make the score 7-2, but Ohio Northern would rally with a six-run fourth to retake the lead 8-7.
Mount Union then took the lead for good in the fourth as another Ohio Northern error led to two runs and gave the Raiders back the lead at 9-8 before blowing the game open with a six-run fifth inning extended the lead to 15-8.
Northern pushed another run across in the sixth before the Raiders finished the scoring with four more runs in the bottom of the frame for the 19-9 final.
The 19 runs was the most in a single game for Mount Union since a 19-11 home win over Marietta in 2009.
Austin Price gave up seven runs, only two earned, on five hits over 2.2 innings to fall to 1-4 on the mound for Ohio Northern.
Mount Union wasted little time getting on the board in game two with four runs in the first inings, six in the third and two each in the fourth and fifth to take a commanding 14-0 lead.
Northern got two in the sixth and single runs in the eighth and ninth as Cody Fisher gave up nine runs in 2.2 innings to take the loss.
Carlino and fellow sophomores Ricky Olasz (West Miffin, Pa./West Mifflin), Jimmy Dobran (Poland/Poland Seminary), Evan Knott (Canton/GlenOak) and Kyle Osco(Hartville/Lake) each drove in two runs as every starter in the line up got a hit as the Raiders belted out 18 hits.
This was all more than enough offense for another in Tom Bekelsky (Akron/Firestone) who allowed only six hits, struck out six and no earned runs over 5.2 innings to move to 2-0 on the season.
Carlino finished the day 6-for-7, scoring six times and driving in four runs.
Mount Union next plays Tuesday at 1 pm at Capital in an OAC doubleheader. The games will be broadcast LIVE online with LIVE STATS athttp://athletics.mountunion.edu