BEREA, Ohio — Trent Valentine was masterful on the mound and had three hits to lead No. 12 ranked Marietta College to a 7-2 win over Ohio Northern University Thursday (May 11) afternoon in the 2023 Ohio Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament.
 
The Pioneers improve to 32-9 on the season and will play John Carroll in the winner's bracket Friday morning. The Blue Streaks, seeded fourth in the tournament, knocked off top seed and tournament host Baldwin Wallace by the score of 5-0 in Thursday's other first round game.
 
"I thought today was one of our better games," Marietta head coach Brian Brewer said. "With this group as young and inexperienced as they are, they just have to realize at this time of year everything needs to be intentional and if we can stay locked in for nine full innings, we have a chance to play our best baseball to date."
 
Valentine (7-0) shutout the Polar Bears through the first seven innings scattering four hits. Ohio Northern finally got to Valentine in the eighth when they strung together three hits and scored their two runs. Valentine worked 7.1 innings and allowed two runs on seven hits. He walked two and struck out seven.
 
Zach Marzetz pitched the final 1.2 innings and, aided by a pair of double plays, retired all five batters he faced. Marzetz allowed no runs two hits.
 
"Trent was really good today. Offensively, we scored early but I don't know how many balls we actually hit hard," Brewer said. "We were on top of the ball and applied a little bit of pressure. We had the one minor lapse defensively in the middle innings."
 
Marietta opened the game with three straight hits in the bottom of the first inning. Nick Bonnizzio reached on an infield single, Alex Richter single through the left side of the infield and then Carson singled driving in Bonnizzio and moving Richter to third, Ty davis followed with a sac fly plating Richter.
 
After retiring to first two batters in the bottom of the third, Davis tripled to right center. Valentine lined a single to left scoring Davis. Austin Amburgey walked and Ben Kaplin single loading the bases. Cole Rieman drove in two runs with a single through the right side of the infield making it 5-0.
 
Bonnizzio led off the fourth with a double and moved to third on a fly out from Richter. Carson grounded out to second scoring Bonnizzio. The Pioneers' final run came in the seventh when Valentine singled and later scored on a sac fly from Cole Yeager.
 
Ohio Northern got a one-out single from Corey McMann and a double from Jacob Wenning. Vinny Sclafani pinch hit and lined a two-run single into right-center scoring McMann and Wenning.
 
Blake Altaffer (8-1) started on the mound for Ohio Northern and took the loss. He gave up six runs on 10 hits in 6.0 innings of work. Altaffer walked two and struck out five. Brady Corbitt allowed one run on two hits in one-third of an inning, while Hayden Heche tossed 1.2 shutout innings to close the game.
 
Valentine finished 3-for-4 with two runs scored and one RBI. Bonnizzio had two hits, including a double, and scored twice. Richter collected two hits, including a triple.
 
Marietta and John Carroll will play Friday (May 12) at 9:30 a.m. Baldwin Wallace and Ohio Northern play at 12:30 p.m.