By Tim Glon
The Ohio Northern baseball team kept its Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament hopes alive with a 4-2 and 8-2 double header sweep at Muskingum on Saturday.
The Polar Bears improve to 17-17 overall and are now 8-8 in OAC action, which keeps them one game behind Mount Union for the fourth and final playoff spot.
Senior Austin Price (4-2) threw a complete-game 6-hitter to earn the victory in Game 1, allowing only one earned run while striking out two.
Northern scored three times in the top of the sixth inning to snap a 1-1 tie on back-to-back-to-back RBIs by senior Dan Belliveau, senior Cory Martin and freshman Nick Eltzroth.
Senior Kevin Obarski put Northern up 1-0 in the top of the second with an RBI triple, scoring Martin.
In Game 2, Northern collected 10 hits and got 3.2 innings of shutout relief from the bullpen to complete the sweep.
Martin doubled and homered to lead the ONU offense.
The Polar Bears scored four times in the top of the second, again getting consecutive RBIs from Eltzroth, junior Matt Magni, freshman Reid Allen and freshman Cody Meyer.
Martin's 2-run home run, his second of the season, extended the lead to 6-0.
Things got a bit interesting in the bottom of the eighth with ONU ahead 8-2.
The Muskies loaded the bases with one out on an error, a hit batter and a walk.
But Eltzroth got a fly out and a strikeout to get out of the jam and allowed just a one-out walk in the ninth to close the door and pick up his second save of the season
Freshman Ben Gilschinski (2-1) picked up the win by allowing two runs over 5.1 innings.
Freshman Alex Crabtree threw two shutout innings and Eltzroth got the final five outs.
The Polar Bears will return to action on Tuesday with a non-conference contest at Oberlin.
