This season has been a historic struggle for Ohio baseball, which sits at 6-31 after a 12-4 defeat against Morehead State on Tuesday.
When the Bobcats’ pitching is lights out, the bats falter. If the offense perks up, the hurlers and defense struggle.
Ohio’s .240 batting average ranks tenth among the Mid-American Conference’s 12 members and the Bobcats are in the bottom half of the conference in nearly every major offensive statistic.
The pitching stats aren’t any rosier with Ohio sporting a 6.14 team ERA, which is dead last in the MAC.
Defensively, Ohio ranks towards the bottom half of the MAC, owning a .959 fielding percentage and committing 57 errors in 37 games.
The inability to consistently hit, pitch or play defense has likely cost Ohio a shot at competing in the MAC Tournament for the second season in a row, as only the top eight teams qualify.
Though the team entered the season with its goal being a tournament berth, the focus shifted in a weekend series against Kent State on April 5-6, when the Bobcats were swept and lost the three games by a combined score of 34-6.
“I think it’d be remiss for us to think about the MAC Tournament or anything beyond that when we’re not playing real good baseball,” Smith said. “I think the focus would be to play better baseball, limit the errors that we have, get better at some of the mental mistakes that we’ve made on the bases.
“We’re a long way away from worrying about conference tournament play.”
Thus far, Ohio is embarking on what could be a historically bad season. The Bobcats must win eight of their final 13 games to avoid the title of the worst team in program history in terms of wins and losses.
From a winning percentage standpoint, the team’s .162 percentage would rank dead last in the history of Ohio baseball. The only teams remotely close to that percentage are last year’s team (.264) and the 1981 edition of the Bobcats (.261).
And the 12-game losing streak Ohio snapped with a 3-2 win in 10 innings Saturday also marked historical futility, as it’s the longest such streak ever in Bobcat baseball.
There are many reasons for Ohio’s struggles, but a primary one has to do with the team’s youth.
Ohio’s roster features 16 freshmen and four juniors who transferred from schools that don’t play in Division I. And there are only five seniors on the roster with two, catcher Kyle Dean and outfielder Scott White, missing the remainder of the season due to injury.
But with that youth comes optimism from Smith, who constantly reminds his team that turning around the program and instilling a new culture is not a fast process.
“The one thing we’ve talked to them about is that we’re going have a lot of the same players back here next year, and we’ve got to keep more of a big picture mindset,” he said after a 2-0 loss to Rio Grande last week. “If we get overly negative about where we’re at right now, it may affect where we’re going down the road.”
“I believe in these guys, and I believe in what they’re capable of.”
Fast Facts:
Worst winning percentages in program history:
2014: .162
1981: .261
2013: .264
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