Ohio trailed Eastern Michigan 5-3 in the top of the sixth inning Saturday when a downpour started. When the decision to call the game was made more than an hour after the initial rain delay, the Bobcats were 3-1 winners.
Softball sure is a funny game.
The Bobcats took a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the fifth when Lauren Gellerman knocked in Alexis Joseph and Paige Kemezis with a long, opposite field single.
“I told her that second at-bat, ‘Work the count, see some pitches. That way you can get your timing back,’” coach Jodi Hermanek said. “Then, the first pitch she blasted it, and I thought, ‘OK, or don’t. Just stand in there and swing.’”
But when Ohio pitcher Emily Wethington returned to the circle for the top of the sixth, the rains — and the long ball — followed.
The Bobcats’ all-time strikeout leader served up a pair of two-run home runs to Sarah Gerber and Allison Scherer while recording just one out before heavy rains and lightning forced umpires to call the game — in Ohio’s favor.
According to NCAA Softball Rule 6.16, if an umpire is forced to call a game in the middle of an inning, “The score shall be that of the last equal inning played.”
The ruling erased the Eagles’ four-run inning and gave Ohio a win.
Hermanek said it was a welcome change to have the weather work to her squad’s advantage after the rain canceled a mid-week doubleheader with Ohio State.
“Our focus was one through five because who knew what was going to happen to us,” Hermanek said. “Everything was about the radar. We got through one through five on the stronger end, but obviously the top of the sixth is not something we’re going to be proud of.”
EMU took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second when left fielder McKenna Ross lead off with a triple and came around to score on a bloop single off Scherer’s bat.
Ohio tied it in the bottom of the third when Jillian Van Wagnen scored off an error by EMU shortstop Stacie Skodinski. The win brought the Bobcats to an even 6-6 in the Mid-American Conference.
“In this conference, everything is meaningful, whether you lose a game to weather or win straight up. We just want to get on the field and compete,” Hermanek said. “The competitor in you says, ‘Dang it, I wish I had that last inning and a half to finish it,’ but right now it is what it is, and we’ll take it.”
Ohio’s home finale Sunday was canceled because of unplayable field conditions.
bl245106@ohiou.edu
@ThePostSports
