In November, the Kent State football team put the cherry on top of Ohio’s three-game losing streak.
But on a balmy April weekend, the Flashes’ baseball team handed the Bobcats their sixth straight loss and completed the sweep of Ohio with an 18-2 beat down Sunday.
Junior first baseman Jake Madsen said he couldn’t find any positives from the game.
“We pretty much didn’t play well all the way around,” he said. “I think it was obvious to everyone watching.”
Kent State opened with a blowout in the first inning, scoring seven runs off sophomore starting pitcher Connor Sitz, who didn’t have his best game after tweaking his shoulder early in the opening frame.
Sitz, who fell to 0-7 on the season, didn’t escape the first inning, lasting just two-thirds of the frame. He allowed six earned runs on four hits, in addition to two walks and a ball-to-strike ratio of 14 to 11.
“In a game you’ve obviously got to win to avoid getting swept, the first inning can play a key role in that,” coach Rob Smith said. “And unfortunately we got off to a bad start. We had two outs, a runner on third with only one run.”
Ohio trotted out seven pitchers with sophomore Jake Miller lasting the longest, who pitched four innings and let in five runs. Just three of those runs were earned.
Kent State batted around in the opening frame, with the Flashes recording 12 at-bats in the inning.
The Bobcats scored their two runs in the bottom half of the third, with Madsen singling in freshman wunderkind Mitch Longo and junior outfielder Tyler Wells following that with a base hit that scored junior infielder Garrett Black.
Longo’s 11-game hitting streak was snapped however, as the outfielder only found his way to the basepaths via a walk. Entering the game, Longo was batting .427 with a team-high 44 hits, 12 runs scored and an on-base plus slugging percentage of 1.074.
The Flashes continued to put the hurt on the Bobcats in the following innings, tallying runs in all but three innings and managed to bat around for the second time of the ball game in a five-run seventh frame.
Ohio’s offense struggled against Kent State starter Brian Clark, who pitched six innings and allowed four hits and four walks while permitting two earned runs.
Those offensive struggles are something that Smith has been trying to curb of late, as he said he’s putting together lineups that sacrifice a little bit of defense in order to boost their hitting.
But those troubles at the plate persisted this weekend for the Bobcats as they could only plate six runs in three games. Kent State did not share those issues, outscoring Ohio by a 34-6 margin.
As with the pitching and hitting, the Bobcat defense also struggled as they tallied three errors in Sunday’s game and accrued seven over the course of the weekend.
@c_hoppens
ch203310@ohiou.edu
Fast Facts:
Kent State 18 (19-10, 7-2 MAC)
Ohio 2 (5-23, 1-8 MAC)
- Ohio has lost six straight games.
- Sunday was the Bobcats’ second-worst loss of the season.
