To put St. Bonaventure’s three game sweep of Ohio last weekend in context, the Bonnies entered the series scoring 22 total runs in their first nine games.
In just three days, they scored 44 runs.
And in Ohio’s midweek matchup against Xavier on Wednesday, the Bobcats were obliterated 14-0 and recorded just three hits.
When Central Michigan comes to Bob Wren Stadium this weekend to open up Mid-American Conference play, the Bobcats will be looking for a fresh start as their quest begins to qualify for the conference tournament.
Junior first baseman Jake Madsen, who said he hasn’t been happy with the way he’s played of late, is excited for the team to have a clean slate.
“When you have a record like ours has been so far, you get frustrated,” Madsen said. “But zero and zero, it’s a great feeling. Hopefully we can make a run in the MAC.”
Simply put, Ohio has struggled in every facet of the game and has struggled to limit the “free bases” that coach Rob Smith so heavily stresses.
Those free bases include walks, errors, stolen bases allowed, wild pitches, hit batters, passed balls and balks.
In the Bobcats’ recent four-game losing streak, they averaged 14.25 free bases per game, including just 23 in a 24-6 rout to the Bonnies.
Continuing to put things in context, the national average for free bases last season was 8.34 and the worst average was 15.72.
In the only sport where defenses control the ball, Smith said his team has to do a better job at limiting the opposition’s opportunities.
“We’re not throwing enough strikes,” Smith said. “Our pitchers have not done as good a job as they’re capable of with throwing the ball over the plate and it’s created a lot of issues. … If you add in multiple errors, upwards of six, seven, eight walks in a game, that’s a recipe for disaster.”
The offense hasn’t been much better, with Ohio averaging 3.25 runs in the four-game funk. Smith said that part of the issue comes back to the pitching staff, which is often putting the offense in big holes.
“When you’re down six to nothing, it’s really hard to hit because you try to hit a six-run home run,” Madsen said. “But we all know that’s not possible.”
Facing Ohio for this weekend’s three-game MAC-opener is a Central Michigan team that was picked this preseason to finish second in the West Division.
The Chippewas fe
ature one of the MAC’s best pitching staffs early on, sporting the conference’s second-best earned run average at 3.05 and rank first in strikeouts with 152.
Junior righthander Jordan Foley leads the staff as one of three Chippewas who rank among Baseball America’s top 10 prospects in the MAC. He’s put together a 2.97 ERA with 31 strikeouts in 30.1 innings.
@C_Hoppens
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UP NEXT
What: Central Michigan (10-9) at Ohio (4-13)
Where: Bob Wren Stadium
When: Friday 6 p.m.
Saturday 3 p.m.
Sunday 1 p.m.
