ALLIANCE — The Ohio Northern baseball team used strong pitching performances and a balanced offensive attack to sweep Mount Union 15-4, 9-4 on Sunday afternoon at 23rd Street Field in Alliance.
The Polar Bears improve to 16-6 overall and 4-2 in the Ohio Athletic Conference, while the Purple Raiders drop to 13-7, 4-2.
In the first contest, MtU scored an early run in the bottom of the first inning to take an early lead before Northern scored three runs in the fourth and fifth innings to take a 3-1 lead.
The Polar Bears broke the contest open in the top of the seventh inning as they used a 4-run inning to push the lead to 7-1.
In that inning, seniors T.J. Storer (Loveland/Moeller) and Hayden Shenefield (Powell/Worthington Kilbourne) and junior Luke Klinehoffer (Zanesfield/John Glenn) all scored.
After the ONU defense made quick work of Mount Union in the bottom half of the seventh inning, the Polar Bear offense exploded for six runs in the top of the eighth inning as seniors Jason Burkett (Maumee), Jordan Bostater (Bryan) and Brandon Kasberg (Mentor) and junior Caleb Thomas (Strongsville) all earned RBIs with hits in the inning.
