ALLIANCE, Ohio – Otterbein defeated Mount Union 14-8 in the championship game of the 2017 Ohio Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament Saturday at 23rd Street Field.

The Cardinals, 31-12 on the season, claim the conference's automatic bid to next week's NCAA Tournament. The regular season champion Purple Raiders, 31-11 overall, will wait to hear if they will receive one of 13 national at-large bids to the NCAA Tournament.

Otterbein led 4-0 after the first inning and held a 9-1 lead after four innings as the Cardinals belted out 17 hits and took advantage of four Mount Union errors to win their first tournament title since 2007.

Mount Union was down 13-1 in the sixth inning when the Raiders plated five runs – Charlie Lewis (Strongsville / Strongsville) and Conner Koski (Mayfield Hts / Mayfield) each had RBI singles while Billy Goodall (Canfield / South Range) had a three-run home run to bring the score to 13-6.

Otterbein got one of those runs back in the seventh before Mount Union scored a run in the eighth on a Joey Keleman (North Olmsted / North Olmsted) sacrifice fly and a Nate Owen (Cranberry Twp, Pa. / Seneca Valley) RBI single in the ninth for the 14-8 final.

Johnny Putnam went 5.2 innings on the mound to get the win for the Cardinals while Mike Martin (Independence/Independence) took the loss for the Raiders.

Goodall finished the game 4-for-5 at the plate and drove in four runs as one of four Raiders named to the OAC All-Tournament Team.

Phil Mary (Venetia, Pa. / Peters Twp.), Kyle Spellman (Ravenna / Ravenna) and Beau Taylor (Alliance / West Branch) were the other Mount Union players named to the all-tournament team.