Ohio was on the verge of being swept out of the Keith LeClair Classic in Greenville, N.C., on Saturday after dropping its first two games to Illinois and New Mexico State.
But with a strong effort from freshman starting pitcher Jake Miller and a spark from the middle of its lineup, Ohio (1-4) was able to win its first game of the season against Boston College (8-1.)|
The victory marked not only the first of the 2013 season, but also the first of Rob Smith’s head coaching career.
“You know, he deserves this,” sophomore first baseman Jake Madsen said. “He puts in so much effort and so much time into this, and for him to get a win really means a lot.”
Smith, on the other hand, shook off the importance of his first career win.
“I’m just happy that we were able to get a win for the players,” Smith said. “They’ve been working so incredibly hard and they’ve been playing hard. They just got the results we had wanted. But tonight, they really went out and played with great emotion.”
Ohio struck first in the game when sophomore centerfielder Tyler Wells singled in junior second baseman Garrett Black.
The lead, which was the Bobcats’ first of the season, increased in the third inning when Black scored freshman leftfielder Nick Squires and senior shortstop Dan Schmidt with a single through the infield.
And after Wells loaded the bases with a single later that inning, sophomore catcher Cody Gaertner drove in two more runs to provide the Bobcats with a 5-0 advantage entering the bottom of the third.
A five-run cushion was more than enough for Miller, who allowed only one earned run, three hits, one walk in a seven-strikeout, eight-inning performance.
“For a kid that’s a freshman to go out and do what he did against an (Atlantic Coast Conference) caliber team was just tremendous, and I couldn’t be more proud of the effort that he gave,” Smith said. “He really lifted his team tonight, especially because our bullpen was pretty depleted coming off of (Friday.)”
Ohio used 10 pitchers on Friday in an 11-6 loss to Illinois and a 7-0 loss to New Mexico State, but on Saturday the Bobcats needed only one additional arm as sophomore Logan Cozart closed out the final inning of Miller’s victory.
The Bobcats saw encouraging production from the heart of their order, as their two-through-six hitters batted in seven of the team’s eight runs. Madsen and sophomore right fielder Brice Nikithser also hit the Bobcats’ first home runs of the season.
“We just hit the ball tonight,” Madsen said. “The first few games, we didn’t hit like we wanted to. But just spending time in the cages with the coaches is really paying off for us.”
ch203310@ohiou.edu
