This past weekend, Eastern Kentucky outscored Morehead State 53-24 in a three-game baseball series.
Yes, baseball.
It took Ohio 14 games to score more than the Colonels’ weekend output.
The Colonels (9-19, 5-7 Ohio Valley Conference) have struggled on the mound, yet excelled with the bat, an issue Ohio (6-24, 3-6 Mid-American Conference) knows all too well.
Eastern Kentucky ranks 10th out of 11 teams in the OVC with a 6.61 team-earned run average and is tied for last in the conference with a .315 batting average.
But no matter how many runs they give up, the Colonels’ high-powered offense is on the mind of Ohio coach Rob Smith, whose pitching staff is traditionally thin in midweek games.
“Eastern is traditionally an offensive team,” Smith said. “We’ve got to be creative and find a way to get 27 outs. That’ll be something we’ll look at and discuss how to navigate through this game.”
Sophomore relief pitcher Logan Cozart has the second lowest ERA (4.43) and said it would be a “Johnny Wholestaff” game, as many pitchers would be used to soften the blow on the starting pitchers who work the weekend conference games.
In this past Tuesday’s 15-10 loss to Xavier, the Bobcats used eight pitchers.
Despite facing an opponent that is red-hot with its bats, junior pitcher Brad Przebieda said his approach on the mound will be no different than it is in any other game.
“It is the way it is in every game, whether they’re putting up 30 runs or two runs,” he said. “It doesn’t matter. You have to throw strikes and you can’t give up a lot of free bases, otherwise teams are going to be able to put up 30 runs.”
Ohio’s offense hasn’t been too shabby either, especially in home midweek games, putting up double-digit run totals in losses to Youngstown State and Xavier.
Sophomore Jake Madsen, who leads the team with a .333 batting average, said the key to keeping up with the Colonels is sticking with what has worked for them all season and executing the small things.
“We’ve just got to stick to our approach,” Madsen said. “We’ve put up a lot of runs in some games this season as well, so we have to just keep to our approach, get our bunts down, get the guys over and drive them in. That’s all we can really do.”
ch203310@ohiou.edu
