DC baseball falls at home to ONU on Thursday

DEFIANCE, Ohio – The Defiance Yellow Jackets dropped a non-conference battle with the Ohio Northern Polar Bears, 11-4, on Thursday at Rutter Field as ONU plated runs in seven different frames with 25 baserunners. 

Starter Sam Thombs (Commerce Township, Mich./Lutheran) was able to work around three walks in the first, but was not able to get out the second with the same issue. After issuing consecutive walks to start the second, Thombs also dealt three wild pitches which included one on strike three with two outs that allowed the batter to reach first and extend the inning. That strikeout was the only punchout by Thombs after five total walks and was pulled after 46 pitches.

Blake Bowman (Toledo, Ohio/Start) entered in relief and mishandled a ball back the mound on his first batter faced to allow a third ONU run to score in the second. He settled in for a scoreless third before the Polar Bears socked four straight singles with two outs to manufacture their fourth run of the game.

In ONU's half of the fifth, a pair of hit batters, sacrifice bunts and RBI knocks extended the lead out to 6-0 with two runs facing Tyler Sickmiller (Leipsic, Ohio/Leipsic). The Polar Bear tacked on two more in the sixth off Damarius Taylor on back-to-back, two-out RBI hits.

Ohio Northern starting pitcher Blake Altaffer turned in five scoreless innings on hill to keep Defiance at bay with five strikeouts and zero walks. 

The Yellow Jackets broke up the shutout with four runs in the sixth against reliever Kaiden Domer. The table was set on a dropped popup in front of the mound to get Mitchell Roever (Cincinnati, Ohio/Elder) aboard followed by a walk to Alex Morr (Bryan, Ohio/Bryan). That set up Josh Vischer's (Genoa, Ohio/Genoa) RBI single that landed just to the right of center while Morr went first-to-third on the play. Standing just 90 feet from home, Morr scored moments later on a wild pitch that was also ball four to Trent Murdock, which triggered another pitching change for the Polar Bears. Hunter Bostater (Ney, Ohio/Fairview) kept the line moving when he greeted the new pitcher with an RBI double off the top of the fence in left-center. Austin Horning (Archbold, Ohio/Pettisville) capped off the four-run frame with a sacrifice fly to left to bring Murdock home.

Ohio Northern tacked on single runs in the seventh, eighth and ninth against relievers Tyler Dehan (St. Henry, Ohio/St. Henry) and Jeff Varga (Rockford, Mich./Rockford). Defiance pitching issued a total of 11 walks and 12 hits while striking out just three.

On the offensive side, Vischer and Bostater led the way with two hits apiece and were joined with RBIs along with Horning.

The Yellow Jackets host Hanover on Saturday for their final home games of the year with a doubleheader beginning at noon. Saturday will also serve as Senior Day with pregame recognition of DC baseball's departing senior class, which will take place prior to the first game against the Panthers.

-JACKETS-