BEREA, Ohio – For the second day in a row, the No. 4 seeded Otterbein baseball team rallied behind a complete-game pitching effort on the hill to secure another victory in the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) Tournament at Fisher Field.

The Cardinals, receiving a gem from Collin Hoffmann in Thursday's opener against host Baldwin Wallace, saw an almost identical performance from senior right-hander Johnny Putnam in the winner's game Friday morning en route to a 7-1 triumph over No. 3 seed Ohio Northern. He chucked 104 pitches, only allowed six hits, struck out five batters and walked just one across the nine full frames.

As a result, Otterbein moves into Saturday's championship game at noon with the opponent yet to be determined. The Cardinals, who will have to get beat twice for elimination, can earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships with just one more win.

All seven runs came with two outs, beginning in the first when Matthew Gibson rocketed a 2-RBI single to right-center field that deflected off the glove of ONU's Phil Buckingham at second base. Ohio Northern had a pair of two-out singles in the third before Putnam made a nice defensive play to strand runners on the corners, grabbing a comebacker to the mound and sprinting over to first base himself.

Otterbein doubled up its lead in the fifth with more two-out hitting, which began after Sam Edgell just missed a home run on a ball that went foul around the right-field pole. He responded moments later with a double in the gap as the start of four-straight Cardinals reaching base. Luke Barber had an RBI-single, Connor Brett walked and Tim Snyder poked another RBI-single.

The margin was comfy for Putnam, who kept his pitch count efficient and glided the distance without seeing much trouble. Otterbein had four-straight singles through the left side in the ninth to help pad the cushion, and ONU crossed its only run on a sac fly in the bottom half.

Brett hits 3 for 4 at the dish while Barber and Edgell both had multi-hit days as well. Putnam improved to a 5-3 record this year with a 3.67 E.R.A.