For the first time since March 1, Ohio found itself on the winning side of the final score.
The Bobcats snapped a nine-game losing streak, defeating Western Michigan at Bob Wren Stadium 5-3 on Friday night.
Originally, the series was supposed to be played on the road for Ohio, but poor weather in Michigan forced the three-game set to Athens, with the Broncos acting as the home team.
Ohio opened the scoring in the first inning, using a single by senior right fielder Scott White to score second baseman Garrett Black. Ohio would leave the bases loaded to end the inning, portending a theme that would hamper the Bobcats throughout the evening.
Despite putting up 16 hits, Ohio could only muster five runs. But after dealing with loss after loss in the past few weeks, coach Rob Smith is just focused on his team earning a long-awaited victory.
“Beyond the fact that we won, we played well,” Smith said. “…We pitched well and we made plays when we needed to make them.”
The Bobcats tacked on three more runs in the top of the fourth, taking advantage of what could have been an inning-ending double play that was botched on Western Michigan shortstop Andrew Sohn’s relay to first base as he airmailed the ball into the Bronco dugout.
Finkler scored on the error and the Bobcats tacked on two more tallies on singles by first baseman Jake Madsen and third baseman John Adryan.
But the following inning would be a disaster for Finkler.
The freshman committed three errors in the bottom of the fourth, helping allow the Broncos to score three unearned runs on freshman starting pitcher Jake Roehn.
Roehn had one of his best starts in his young Ohio career, pitching eight innings with four strikeouts, three walks and no earned runs on 122 pitches.
“After one hundred-some pitches, your arm is always going to be tired,” Roehn said. “Just go out there, do what you can do, make them put the ball in play and let your defense work behind you and come out with a W.”
Ohio tacked on its final run in the top of the fifth on a safety squeeze by freshman catcher Nick Bredeson, scoring White.
Neither team had a particularly clean evening in the field, with both the Bobcats and Broncos amassing three errors each.
Jake Rudnicki will take the bump on Saturday for the Bobcats after pitching six innings with one earned run in last weekend’s series against Central Michigan.
“We obviously haven’t done anything yet,” Madsen said. “We’ve got a chance tomorrow to win a series and we haven’t done that all the time coach Smith has been here. So if we can win a series tomorrow, I think that would be a huge confidence booster.”
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