OXFORD - When three pieces of the heart of your lineup are out with injury or illness, it's tough to beat anybody, much less the preseason pick to win the league.
With three of its top hitters unable to play, the Ohio baseball team dropped the first two games and won the third of a three-game set last weekend at Miami to open up the Mid-American Conference slate.
With catcher Ben Crabtree still nursing an injured wrist, Anthony Gressick recovering from mononucleosis and Dan Lunsford mending an injured chest, Ohio (5-15 overall, 1-2 MAC) totaled three runs in the first two games but pounded out 18 hits in a 9-3 win yesterday.
It's really hard when you don't have your three
four and five hitter the guys that swing the bat said Ohio coach Joe Carbone. But
we've got more than those guys
and it all says Ohio on the uniform. That's the luck of the draw when guys get hurt
you just have to overcome that as a team.
With a steady rain falling in Oxford on Friday, Miami (15-9, 2-1 MAC) quietly posted runs in the second and third innings to hop out to a quick 2-0 lead in the opener and took command for good in the sixth inning with five runs off Ohio starter Chris Bova (1-4).
RedHawk hurler Keith Weiser picked up his team-high fifth win of the young season, scattering three hits in seven shutout innings.
He was just throwing strikes
catcher Phil Sabatini said. We were getting ourselves out a lot
and we hit a lot of balls hard
but he was just going in there throwing strikes and not putting guys on base.
Saturday, a pitchers' duel between Ohio's Dan O'Rourke and Miami's Graham Taylor was decided in the eighth as RedHawk Mike Ferris hit his 14th home run of the season to score the decisive run in a 2-1 thriller.
O'Rourke (1-3) went the distance for the Bobcats, allowing six hits and two runs, both earned. Taylor struck out six hitters on his way to earning the win.
Dan pitched a great game
Carbone said. He pitched good enough to win.
Down 2-0 in the last inning, Ohio threatened. Third baseman Brian Colopy and Sabatini singled to kick off the ninth and were advanced by a Brian White sacrifice bunt.
Designated hitter Jared Willis knocked in Colopy with a sacrifice fly to center to bring Ohio within one run of the RedHawks. With two outs and the tying run on third, second baseman Dusty Hammond lined out sharply to the right, ending the threat and the ballgame.
In the series finale, the Ohio bats came alive. The Bobcats took advantage of a pair of two-out RBIs to take a 4-1 lead into the fifth. Outfielder Willie Walker's single in the second plated two and a Colopy double in the fourth put two more on the board.
Miami rallied to cut the lead to one, but in the seventh Ohio capitalized on two RedHawk errors and increased the lead to 7-3, before going on to win 9-3.
We were getting some breaks here and there
Sabatini said. We were hitting the ball hard
