Ohio has 13 games left to avoid its worst season in team history.
This weekend, Ohio will face Eastern Michigan and look to keep its current losing streak short. The Bobcats also want to win their first series since coach Rob Smith took the helm last year.
The Bobcats enter into the weekend series after a falter against Morehead State on Tuesday, when they surrendered seven runs in the fifth inning en route to a 12-4 loss.
“There’s a difference between certain big innings and others,” Smith said. “Big innings that I don’t want to see happen are the ones that happen because of walks and errors.”
To make it worse, the Bobcats have been known to allow runs late in games, while Eastern Michigan has outscored its opponents 33-15 in the sixth inning.
Eagles’ senior first baseman Lee Longo leads the team with a .531 batting average and 20 RBIs when batting with two outs.
Lee, the older brother of Ohio freshman centerfielder Mitch Longo, leads the Eastern Michigan offense this season with a team-leading .371 batting average, along with team-highs in hits, doubles, and RBIs. He has crossed home plate 28 times in 140 at-bats.
Mitch has been ruled out for the season and will not play this weekend after he injured his ankle while scoring the the game-winning run in the 10th inning Saturday at Toledo. He leads Ohio with a .346 batting average to go along with team-highs in doubles, triples, home runs, RBIs and total bases.
Eastern Michigan redshirt senior rightfielder Sam Ott, who bats leadoff, leads the Eagles with a team-best 34 runs on 47 hits and 24 walks.
The Eagles are coming off a win against Hillsdale on Tuesday, but they were swept in a three-game series against Miami last weekend.
The Eagles’ poor record may be a result of their six games played against ranked opponents, all of which were on the road. They came away with just one win in those matchups in the season opener against then-No. 16 Clemson, in 10 innings.
Eastern Michigan has been outscored 255-222 in 38 games, but Ohio has been outscored by a larger margin of 276-110 in one fewer game played.
The Eagles are 11-1 this season when leading after the sixth inning, while they have yet to win (0-22) when behind after the sixth.
As it has been most of this season, the weekend pitching rotation will stay the same for Ohio against Eastern Michigan to begin the series.
Freshmen pitchers Jake Roehn and Jake Rudnicki will get the first two starts, respectively. But Sunday’s starter is still undetermined, but sophomore right-handed pitcher Connor Sitz has taken the mound on six Sundays so far this season.
In 19 combined starts, Roehn and Rudnicki have put together four total victories and both have ERAs under 4.30. Sitz, with a 5.60 ERA, has yet to claim a victory in six starts for the Bobcats.
“It’s always key to get runs first and early,” redshirt junior shortstop Garrett Black said. “(Roehn) has been doing well pretty much all season with keeping the runs low…. It’s just been a struggle this entire year to try to create runs, but we’ve actually been doing better in these last few games and hopefully we can continue to do this.”
Up next:
What: Eastern Michigan (14-24, 2-13 MAC) at Ohio (6-31, 2-13 MAC)
Where: Bob Wren Stadium
When: 6 p.m., Friday
3 p.m., Saturday
1 p.m., Sunday
ab109410@ohiou.edu
@Alex_Busch91
