Ohio took the field in the second half of a doubleheader against Toledo Saturday trying to sustain momentum gained from a 9-3 win that snapped an eight-game losing streak only minutes prior.
Despite a grinding effort from freshman starting pitcher Connor Sitz, the Bobcats (4-18, 1-2 Mid-American Conference) dropped the final game of a three-game series against Toledo (9-12, 2-1) 5-2.
Ohio took the first game featuring clean efforts from senior starter Marck Paliotto and Sean Kennedy, a junior who pitched four scoreless innings in relief. But with that strong effort on the mound, the Bobcats still struggled in the field, where they committed four errors.
Ohio coach Rob Smith considered the loss in the second game of the twin bill to be the best effort from his club.
“We actually played better in the second game than we did in the first game,” he said. “That’s baseball sometimes. You play well and lose and you play marginal and find a way to win a game.”
Ohio’s offense picked up where if left off in the second game, scoring the first two runs of the contest when sophomore right fielder Brice Nikithser doubled to score junior outfielder Scott White followed by a fielder’s choice off the bat of senior infielder Dan Schmidt that scored Nikithser.
That was all the offense Ohio could muster, though. Toledo junior starting pitcher Ryan Wilkinson held the Bobcats’ bats silent for the rest of the game, allowing only two hits in the final seven innings.
“We’re used to normally facing harder-throwing guys, so he came in and pitched in maybe the low 80s with a lot of off speed (pitches),” Ohio sophomore center fielder Tyler Wells said. “It caught us a little off guard. We were getting out in front of a lot of things and just popping things up.”
But along with Toledo’s strong pitching, there was also a breakdown at the plate.
“(In the) middle-to-end-part of this game, our approach at the plate got away from us,” Smith said. “Swings were getting a little lazy. Our approach was not middle to opposite field. It started to be a little bit more pull side, and that’s where we were getting some of those weak ground balls and lazy fly balls.”
Despite the two losses in the series, Ohio’s bullpen was effective. It allowed only one earned run in 12.1 innings of work during the three contests.
It’s efforts like that from the bullpen that will keep the Bobcats afloat in the MAC standings, Smith said.
“It’s going to be important that those guys are able to be consistent,” he said. “Because if we’re going to win the number of games we need to win (in conference play), they’re going to be more of these type of games, not 12 to 11 type of games.”
ch203310@ohiou.edu
