Success came in the form of a cliché for Ohio last night, when, after twice failing to bring Wes O’Neill home from scoring position late in extra innings, the third time was the charm.
With a sacrifice fly to left field by third baseman Bryan Barnes, O’Neill tagged from third to secure the Bobcats’ 5-4 win over Youngstown State and cap 13 innings of chilly baseball at Bob Wren Stadium.
O’Neill, who went 2-for-3 batting ninth, started out three of Ohio’s last five innings with a walk. Each time, coach Joe Carbone gave the signal for right fielder Jensen Painter, who was subbed in for leadoff hitter Ethan Newton, to bunt.
In the ninth inning, with the game tied at 3, O’Neill reach third base with Painter’s bunt and a groundout from Kory Burkhardt. But a fly out from Adam Gecewich ended the inning.
Two innings later, with the score at 4-4, the Bobcats (20-24) had O’Neill on second and Burkhardt at first but still couldn’t finish off the Penguins (11-31).
“It was honestly déjà vu for me,” O’Neill said. “We did it like three times, and every time I’d get to second base and the shortstop would be like, ‘hey, what’s up?’”
By the time O’Neill walked to start the bottom of the 13th, the entire stadium could guess what was going to happen next. Despite stranding O’Neill on base in the previous two attempts, Carbone said he never reconsidered bunting with Painter, who is second on Ohio in RBIs and home runs.
“Some guys, you might think of a hit-and-run,” Carbone said. “I don’t think Jensen’s a good hit-and-run guy. He’s prone to strikeouts. Where other guys might make more contact, he’s a big, strong guy, swings hard. (He’s) a little bit of a power guy.”
Painter, who came into the game with three sacrifice bunts all season, got O’Neill into scoring position yet again.
The difference between the 13th and the previous innings came in the next at-bat, when Burkhardt hit a hard ground ball at the shortstop, who bobbled it as he stood up to throw. With runners on first and third and one out, Barnes hit the sac fly.
“I had a feeling (I might score),” O’Neill said of the 13th. “You can only get away with walking the leadoff batter so many times late in the game. So I was hoping.”
nm256306@ohiou.edu
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