Even though Miami has played Ohio 228 times over the years, the RedHawks finally broke the century mark Thursday with their 100th win in series history.
The RedHawks (27-26, 11-14)took game one by a score of 5-2, but are still on the outside of the Mid-American Conference playoff picture. Akron is a half game back from the RedHawks. Ohio (27-26, 15-10 MAC) sits fourth in the MAC picture; one game ahead of Eastern Michigan and a game back from Central Michigan.
The series-opener storyline was dominated by a lack of opportunistic hitting from the Bobcats, while Miami was more in-tune with runners in scoring position.
“We kind of had a couple mental mistakes, had a couple errors that were not physical, but mental,” senior starting pitcher Brent Choban said. “So coming out tomorrow we just have to focus on being mentally strong and they did more things right than we did, so they came out on top.”
The Bobcat offense kicked into gear in the second inning when freshman second baseman Ian Mezlak popped a sacrifice fly to center to scorefreshman catcher Cody Gaertner, who had singled to lead off the inning.
Choban allowed his second walk of the game to begin the third, but made up for the free base with a quick pick-off move for the inning’s first out. Max Andresen made the game’s first explosive connection later in the inning, where he popped a liner down the first base line, just outsidefreshman first baseman Jake Madsen’s diving reach.
Ohio coach Joe Carbone said if Madsen would have repositioned his body and gotten behind the ball, it would have likely saved further damage.
The RedHawks continued their offensive push as Matt Honchel blasted a grounder that was too hot for junior Ben Otto to handle at short, which scored Andreson. Choban put himself in another tough situation when he hit another batter to bring in Ryan Brenner but got out of the inning three strikes later after notching his fourth of five strikeouts.
With the bases loaded in the third, Ohio junior third baseman Dan Schmidt gave the Miami dugout a scare, knocking a fly ball that had warning track power. However, Honchell, the RedHawks left fielder, hauled it in and limited the swat to a sacrifice fly.
The RedHawks scored three runs in the sixth inning. The third run scored on a bang-bang play at the plate when the throw from right fielder Jensen Painter was a split-second too late.
Both teams’ bats were relatively quiet for the remainder of the contest, save an Ethan Newton double in the eighth for Ohio.
The Bobcat defense picked up steam later in the game under the direction of junior relief pitcher Tyler Backstrom, who capped off the night with a strikeout. Gaertner also caught Miami’s lone runner of the inning attempting to steal second.
Despite the efforts on the opposite side of the ball, the Bobcats went down in order to end the game.
“When they were giving us opportunities, we didn’t cash in some base hits with two outs,” Carbone said. “The bases loaded one time, couple times a guy was on second base, but we have to give credit to Miami, they pitched and hit and got some key hits when they needed to."
— Ohio starting pitcher Brent Choban pitched 6-2/3 innings, allowing eight hits and five runs. He struck out five and had five walks.
— Miami’s Max Andresen went 3-for-4 with two RBIs and a run scored.
— Game two will begin at 6 p.m. Friday. The series will conclude at 2 p.m. Saturday.
jr992810@ohiou.edu
