(COLUMBUS, Ohio) – Mount Union's baseball team extended its winning streak to a season-best seven games and is alone in second place in the Ohio Athletic Conference after 7-2 and 8-3 wins Tuesday at Capital.
The Purple Raiders have also matched the school record for wins and is 23-8 overall and at 9-3 in the OAC is alone in second place after Muskingum was swept by John Carroll and Baldwin-Wallace split with Heidelberg.
Sophomore Connor Mathis (Akron/Firestone) went 6-for-9 with two doubles, two triples and drove in three runs to pace the Mount Union offense. Mathis upped his OAC leading totals in batting average to .481, 51 hits and 41 RBI.
Mount Union took advantage of three Capital errors to score five unearned runs in a 7-2 win in game one.
Matt Murzynski (Mentor/Lake Catholic) started and scattered four hits over five innings and allowed just one earned run to move to 7-1 on the season while sophomore Mike Horning (Avon/Avon) allowed only two hits over the final two innings to pick up his first save of the season.
Mathis went 3-for-4 and drove in a run, Jimmy Dobran (Poland/Poland Seminary) drove in two runs and scored two runs to pace the offense.
In the second game, Mathis drove in two runs on three hits, freshman Sean Mohney (Lodi/Cloverleaf) had two hits including his first collegiate home run and Zach Carlino (Pittsburgh, Pa./Central Catholic) drove in three runs on two hits and pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his first save of the season.
Capital had bases loaded on three different occasions and managed just one run out of those situations.
Freshman pitcher Josh Pryor (Cortland/Lakeview) went six innings and surrendered just two runs and struck out five for his first win of the season. Over the next two innings, Horning and Cory Douglass (Independence/Garfield Heights) combined to give up one run before Carlino took over.
Mount Union returns home to host Penn State-Behrend in a single nine inning game Wednesday (Apr. 18) at 4 pm at 23rd Street Field.
Mount Union 7, Capital 2 (Apr 17, 2012 at Columbus, Ohio) (Game 1)
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Mount Union......... 120 022 0 - 7 9 2 (22-8, 8-3 OAC)
Capital............. 101 000 0 - 2 6 3 (12-17, 1-9 OAC)
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Pitchers: Mount Union - Matt Murzynski; Mike Horning(6) and C.J. Stotler. Capital -
Garrett Griffin; Sam Sifferlin(6); Brent Willing(7) and Matt Carnahan.
Win-Matt Murzynski(7-1) Save-Mike Horning(1) Loss-Garrett Griffin(1-4) T-1:53 A-67
Weather: 65 F Sunny
Mount Union 8, Capital 3 (Apr 17, 2012 at Columbus, Ohio) (Game 2)
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Mount Union......... 000 120 014 - 8 11 0 (23-8, 9-3 OAC)
Capital............. 000 001 110 - 3 7 2 (12-18, 1-10 OAC)
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Pitchers: Mount Union - Josh Pryor; Mike Horning(7); Cory Douglass(8); Zach Carlino(9) and
Steve Mitch. Capital - Jeremy Finchum; Michael Flegal(6); Jacob Thuman(9); Anthony Klamic(9)
and Matt Carnahan.
Win-Josh Pryor(1-1) Save-Zach Carlino(1) Loss-Jeremy Finchum(4-4) T-2:35 A-67
HR MTU - Sean Mohney (1).
Weather: 65 F Sunny
Pryor faced 3 batters in the 7th.