It wasn’t exactly the way coach Rob Smith and Ohio wanted to end the season, but it had to suffice.
Ohio was mathematically eliminated from a Mid-American Conference Tournament spot heading into the weekend and dropped the first two games of their season finale series on the road against Miami.
But the Bobcats (14-39, 9-18 MAC) finished their disappointing season on a positive note with a 7-3 victory against the Redhawks (25-28, 14-13 MAC) on Saturday.
“While we’re certainly disappointed about that we weren’t able to progress into the conference tournament, it was nice to see our guys at least have an opportunity to end the year with a positive feeling,” Smith said.
In the previous two outings against Miami, starting pitchers Marck Paliotto and Connor Sitz pitched a combined 8.1 innings, allowing 10 earned runs and 15 hits. In fact, Bobcat pitching had given up 25 runs in those contests.
But junior Sean Kennedy saved the staff on the final day, pitching five innings while only permitting one run to cross the plate. Ohio’s bullpen finished the job, giving up four hits in the remaining four innings.
It was a strong bounce back outing for Kennedy, who let in five earned runs on three hits and four walks across 3.2 innings in his previous start against Bowling Green.
The Bobcats also saw contributions from an unexpected face, as freshman John Adryan, who spent most of the season seeing action only in midweek games and pinch-hitting situations, carried Ohio’s offense. The infielder went 4-5, knocking in two runs and scoring one of his own.
Freshman Nate Squires sat out the previous weekend series against Bowling Green, as he was too sick to play. But he stepped up in the season finale, recording three hits in the second spot of the batting order.
Miami struck first in the contest, with outfielder Alex Johnson driving in Jake Romano on a sacrifice fly to left field in the bottom of the first, providing the Redhawks their only lead in the contest.
Ohio tied the game on an RBI single from Adryan and took a lead after Kyle Dean scored on a wild pitch.
Third baseman Ben Otto added to the lead on double down the left field line that brought in first baseman Jake Madsen in the fifth, and Ohio added three more runs in the sixth on RBI from Squires, Madsen and outfielder Scott White.
Smith has tried to instill a competitive culture in the program, and though they were eliminated from postseason play last weekend and the team had nothing other than pride to play for, he said the team’s play in the final game was evidence that his philosophies were sinking in.
“We had every reason to just roll over and go through the motions today,” he said. “But we played hard for nine innings, competed very well and pulled out the victory. It’s not so much that we won, but just how we played today. For me, I was impressed with them and very proud with what we did.”
ch203310@ohiou.edu
