With the grounds in Athens still covered in snow, the Bobcats will head south this weekend to begin their 2014 campaign.
Ohio will compete in its first tournament of the year in South Carolina and will take on Presbyterian, North Carolina-Greensboro, South Carolina and Iowa.
Despite the cold winter weather, this weekend will not be the first time the Bobcats have played together, as they previously trained during the fall.
“In the fall we had the whole roster at work, and we played the whole fall season and had a really productive fall,” coach Jodi Hermanek said. “Picking up from there and jumping into the spring semester, the first two days we were out on the football field scrimmaging.”
The team also holds high expectations of themselves, and they don’t rely on coaches to discipline them when they perform poorly in practice. During one of their live pitching sessions, a member of the team struck out looking and immediately went into doing conditioning.
“We expect that high energy and accountability, it’s kind of like our teams way of addressing,” Hermanek said.
The team will look to take their excitement and put it on the field and focus on executing well to start the season.
“Execution for me is the biggest focus, if we can execute to move runners into scorers and then put the bat on the ball and make hard contact, we will have more opportunity to score,” Hermanek said.
Ohio must be ready to play this weekend when it takes the field against an Iowa team that received votes to be ranked in the NCAA Top 25 and finished last season with a 30-24 record.
The Bobcats will also go against a South Carolina team that earned a berth in last year’s NCAA Tournament, despite finishing Southeastern Conference play with an 8-16 record.
Ohio will rely on sophomore pitcher Savannah Jo Dorsey to counter the opposition, as she was named to the College Sports Madness preseason All-MAC second team. Last year, she led the Bobcats in wins, innings pitched and strikeouts.
“The first time out is going to bring out a high level of energy and excitement,” Hermanek said.
ph553412@ohiou.edu
