Murdock's grand slam lifts baseball past Ohio Northern

Sophomore Trent Murdock's eighth-inning grand slam helped the Defiance baseball team to a come-from-behind victory over Ohio Northern in the team's final home game of the season. His bases-loaded homer proved to be the difference in Defiance's 6-2 victory.

The Basics

• Records: Defiance (9-25), Ohio Northern (18-20)
• Location: Craig A. Rutter Field - Defiance, Ohio
• Attendance: 60

Inside The Numbers

• Murdock went 2-4 with four RBIs.
• Senior Lucas Thomeier also had two hits.
• Senior Nate Kaffenbarger had two hits and drove in a run.
• Sophomore Mitchell Roever had an RBI double.
• Roever, Kaffenbarger, sophomore Hunter Bostater, and freshman Gunner Gregg each doubled in the game.
• Junior Austin Horning had a hit, stole a base, and scored twice.
• Freshman Jacob Hild also stole a base and drew Defiance's only walk.
• Freshman Sam Thombs started the game and threw the first three innings while allowing three hits and one run.
• Sophomore John Hammerstein threw four shutout innings in relief.
• Senior Tyler Hines picked up the win for Defiance.
• Nate Webb led the Polar Bears with two hits including a solo homer.
• Logan Stevens also homered for ONU.
• Kyle Lawrence took the loss after allowing five runs off seven hits

The Difference

• Stevens homered in the top of the first to give ONU a 1-0 lead but the Yellow Jackets tied the score in the bottom of the frame off an RBI double by Kaffenbarger.
• Both teams failed to score again until Webb homered down the left-field line in the top of the eighth.
• Thomeier led off the bottom of the eighth with a single to center and advanced to second on a bunt single by Horning. With two runners on and no outs, Kaffenbarger bunted for a hit to load the bases for Murdock. With the bases juiced Murdock crushed a pitch over the left-field fence for this third home run of the season to give the Yellow Jackets a 5-2 lead.
• After the grand slam Bostater doubled to deep center field and was moved over to third by a sacrifice bunt by Gregg. Roever hit a ball in the right-center gap to score Bostater but was thrown out at third trying to leg out a triple. 
• Senior Kendall Duval entered in the top of the ninth with a 6-2 lead and after walking the first batter retired the next three with a strikeout sandwiched between a pair of groundouts.
• Defiance outhit ONU 10-7.
• ONU made two errors while Defiance committed none.

Up Next

• The Yellow Jackets will wrap up the season on Saturday with an HCAC doubleheader at Rose-Hulman with the first game set for noon.