After winning five of its last six games, including a season-high three straight, Ohio is set to begin its final stretch of road games with four Mid-American Conference contests at Central Michigan and Eastern Michigan this weekend.
The Bobcats (21-24, 8-6 MAC) have been on fire at the plate recently. In their doubleheader Tuesday against Dayton, Ohio scored a combined 25 runs on 29 hits with nine home runs.
“We know that we are going to go against some good teams,” Ohio coach Jodi Hermanek said. “Eastern started strong, and Central is battling it out lately. We need to just continue to think about adjusting in at-bats, which has brought us our recent success.”
Ohio will begin its road trip at Central Michigan with two games on Friday afternoon.
Unlike the Bobcats, the Chippewas (21-24, 6-9 MAC) have not had much success lately, as they have lost six of their last seven games. Senior Molly Coldren leads Central Michigan offensively. She broke the program’s all-time RBI record on Wednesday.
In the circle for the Chippewas will most likely be Kara Dornbos, who, despite having only 80 strikeouts in 130 innings pitched, has an earned run average of 2.62.
After the doubleheader on Friday afternoon, Ohio will travel again to play Eastern Michigan on Saturday and Sunday. The Eagles have endured recent struggles with four straight losses and seven losses in their last 10 games.
Pitching has been spotty for EMU this season, as its staff has an ERA of 3.70. Their offense, which averages 3.74 runs per game, is at the bottom of the MAC.
Katy Blaharski has been the leader from the plate with a batting average of .376 and 51 hits.
Both of Ohio’s opponents are under .500 in conference play and are out of the picture in the MAC West, where only two teams have winning records in conference games. Ohio is in fourth place in the MAC East.
“I’m really proud of my team and the work we have put out over the homestand we just wrapped up,” Hermanek said. “This is the last road trip for us, and it will be good to spend some more time together and play some good softball.”
Ohio’s recent winning ways stem from inside the pitcher’s circle with freshman Lauren McClary (13-14, 3.28 ERA). She is now second all-time for single-season strikeouts with 171 in just 175 innings in her first collegiate season.
The team’s recent plate performance has been nothing short of exceptional. With the nine home runs on Tuesday, the 2012 Bobcats have 33 on the season, good for the second-highest single-season total in team history.
Standing out on offense for Ohio is first baseman Raven King, whose nine home runs are the most by an Ohio player in one season. She is batting .306 with 27 RBIs.
“We need to just keep playing loose,” second baseman Brooke Morgart said.
“We are hitting the ball right now, but our goal is to just move the runner 60 feet and keep things rolling — not to hit the long ball, even though that has been our strong suit recently.”
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