Ohio breezed past Wright State in its home opener on a windy, Friday afternoon.
The Bobcats beat the Raiders 3-1, thanks to offense and defense from sophomore pitcher Savannah Jo Dorsey.
“It’s refreshing, really,” Dorsey said talking about being back on their home field. “Ever since the beginning of the week, we had tons of energy to play out on the field.”
Dorsey started the outing with four consecutive strikeouts while on the mound and gave Ohio the lead when she cranked a two-run homerun over the leftfield wall in the second inning.
She finished the game batting 2-3, and nearly had another extra bases hit but her shot pulled right landing foul in the corner by the right field line.
Throwing a complete game, Dorsey had 10 strikeouts and allowed just one run, coming in the third inning on a misfielded ground ball hit in between third and short.
But the big thing for Dorsey was her ability to remain composed with runners in scoring position in multiple instances. She was even smiling as each situation presented itself to the sophomore.
“I love it,” she said. “With the situations, the most important thing is to stay loose, smile and have fun because I know we’re going to get out of it. I have all the confidence in the world.”
In the third, sophomore second baseman Alexia Cortez hit a solo shot that lined into left, with a little help from a major gust of wind to her back.
“I worked into a full count and I was really relaxed at that point,” Cortez said. “She kept throwing me curveball after curveball after curveball, so I told myself, if she was going to throw inside, I was going to get my barrel out. And she threw it inside.”
After losing 11 of their last 12, a win for Ohio in what coach Jodi Hermanek considers “the second half of the season” was huge and may help the Bobcats build momentum as they prepare for Mid-American Conference play on the horizon.
“We were really excited to get out here and it was perfect weather,” Cortez said. “Plus, we got the win.”
Gh181212@ohiou.edu
@charliehatch_
