Ohio’s dreaded 12-game losing streak came to an end Saturday as the Bobcats won their first game since March 28.
However, the team then lost Sunday’s game and the weekend series to Toledo. The Bobcats still have yet to win a Mid-American Conference series under second-year coach Rob Smith.
“Today we took a tiny step backward, but getting (Saturday’s) win out of the way was long overdue,” junior first baseman Jake Madsen said Sunday. “It’s been a while since we’ve had a win like that, so to get another win kind of helps your confidence level.”
Ohio headed into Sunday’s matchup with a chance to win its first series since May 2012, and the Bobcats started the game with three tightly-contested innings before Toledo broke the game open with a grand slam in the bottom of the fourth inning.
“They took a five-run lead after that home run,” Madsen said. “Five runs in baseball is tough to come by. Give us credit, we did battle, but I think they just had too many runs for us to get back in the game.”
Ohio has still lost 22 of its last 24 games and may be in trouble, as its offensive star, freshman centerfielder Mitch Longo, was hurt in the team’s win Saturday.
As Longo scored the game-winning run in the 10th inning, his ankle got caught up with the catcher trying to make the play at home plate.
“It was just a hard play at the plate and the catcher just landed on his ankle wrong,” Madsen said. “He went to the hospital ... and I think we’re still waiting on some results.”
Team members said Sunday that they didn’t know the extent of Longo’s injury, but more will be known this week; he underwent X-Rays at the hospital Saturday.
Longo had one run and two hits on nine at-bats during two games played against Toledo, and he still owns team-highs in batting average, runs, hits, RBIs, doubles, triples, home runs and total bases.
Although Ohio only scored seven runs in three games this past weekend, each game was closely contested. A 3-0 shutout loss Friday and a 7-4 loss Sunday made for the largest margins of victory for the Rockets.
Ohio freshman pitcher Jake Roehn pitched a complete game Friday, and fellow freshman pitcher Jake Rudnicki pitched 8 and 2/3 innings of baseball before being pulled in the Bobcats’ eventual victory on Saturday.
Roehn allowed just one earned run and struck out four batters Friday, and Rudnicki allowed two earned runs on eight hits and struck out four batters in Saturday’s victory.
The Bobcats only used six pitchers in the series, opposed to the 11 pitchers used during last weekend’s three-game series in Akron.
“They did a great job. As freshman pitchers, that’s a tough thing to do,” Madsen said. “That took a lot of confidence and grit out of both of them, Jake Roehn and Jake Rudnicki. I’m proud of them.”
@Alex_Busch91
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Fast Facts
Friday: Toledo 3, Ohio 0
Saturday: Ohio 3, Toledo 2 (10 innings)
Sunday: Toledo 7, Ohio 4
Mitch Longo injured his ankle while scoring the game-winning run Saturday.
The Bobcats are now 6-30 and 2-13 in the MAC.
