Although their season came to a close earlier than expected with two losses to start the Mid-American Conference Tournament, the Bobcats finished their 2012 campaign with plenty of positives.
After losing a group of six seniors, who accounted for most of the team’s production last year, Ohio coach Jodi Hermanek did not know what to expect with seven incoming freshmen in a highly competitive conference.
This season, Hermanek said she expected many things and didn’t expect others.
“I didn’t think the chemistry would be there with so many new pieces,” she said. “But it was, and we performed great as a team for the whole year.”
Ohio (28-29, 14-10 MAC) proved that, despite its youth, the team could compete against anyone in the conference and score frequently.
The Bobcats set a new single-season home run record with 47 blasts, including 13 from both Raven King and Lauren Gellerman, who broke the previous single-season record of eight.
The long ball was a key to success for Ohio this year, as the team was 19-10 when hitting at least one homer.
“I was very pleased with how well I hit this season,” Gellerman said. “I’ve worked so hard on my hitting, and it was great to see me and the rest of the team come through with the big hit so often.”
On the other side of the ball, freshman pitcher Lauren McClary was a force from her first collegiate start, which was a one-hitter.
McClary set the school’s single-season strikeout record with 205, pitched 212-1/3 innings and led the team in wins with 17.
McClary was especially dominant in MAC play, where she held an ERA of 2.55. She had nine complete games in her 15 starts, as well.
MAC play, which the team regards as the most important third of its season, was full of highs and lows for the Bobcats, but the team closed out the regular season on fire.
Ohio won nine of the final 12 regular-season conference games with outstanding offense, averaging more than five runs per game. With its late-season success, Ohio clinched the fourth seed in the conference tournament but made a quick exit after losing two games to Western Michigan and Kent State.
“No one wants to go two-and-out, but we finished the season great other than that,” senior Brooke Mogart said. “With so many new kids, everyone had to get synchronized to start the season, but that’s what kept us doing so well at the end. I’m going to miss this team.”
Though the team did not finish with much hardware to show, five different Bobcats were named to All-MAC teams. Gellerman received the top honor of being named to the first team, while King, Alexis Joseph, Jillian Van Wagnen and McClary made the second team.
The five players were the second most for any school, behind only Ball State.
Ohio will have to replace three seniors next year, as it has its sights on continuing to advance and progress toward a conference championship.
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