With a 6-2 win over Ball State, Ohio claims the title of MAC Champions and a spot in the NCAA tournament.
You wouldn’t know this was a Cinderella story by anything Ohio did this week.
You wouldn’t know it by watching junior Jake Miller’s complete game four-hitter on Wednesday. You wouldn’t know it by watching the Bobcats mash three home runs in a single inning on Thursday. You wouldn’t know it by watching junior Connor Sitz no-hit Bowling Green on Saturday.
But make no mistake — no one in their right mind would have picked the Bobcats as MAC champions before this season started.
Yet, after Sunday’s 6-2 win over Ball State, that’s exactly where Ohio stands; as MAC tournament champions for the first time since 1997, with a spot clinched in the NCAA championship regional tournament.
{{tncms-asset app="editorial" id="cbc4a7de-01a1-11e5-a84f-6f1be20dac27"}}
With mostly an identical roster — albeit, with a more than a few injuries — Ohio finished a season 11-40 just one year ago. Now, the Bobcats (36-19) have won 17 of their last 22 games, and appear to be the hottest they’ve been all season.
Ball State was eager to get any no-hitter talk out of the way early after Sitz’s historic day on Saturday, and hit a ground rule double to straight-away center on the very first batter of the game. It didn’t take long for junior starter Jake Miller to settle in, however, as he retired the next 16 batters he faced, including seven strikeouts.
Miller’s domination was a result of the command he had over both his fastball and change-up, both of which induced a multitude of whiffs by Cardinal hitters. Miller pounded the outer third of the plate with his fastball all afternoon, and mixed in a breaking ball that started in the same place but dove below the knees at the last second.
{{tncms-asset app="editorial" id="a75c18e8-e219-11e4-a75d-77573e76bd16"}}
The comfortable lead his offense was able to supply him early on certainly didn’t hurt his composure, either.
Ohio got started just as quickly as Ball State did, but didn’t ease up. Redshirt junior Manny DeJesus got aboard to lead off the game, and later scored on a single to right by Jake Madsen that tied the game in the first.
It was an impressive display of manufacturing a run, but the scoring the Bobcats would go on to do in the following innings required little of that. Ohio began a game of long ball in the second inning, as Tyler Wells turned on a pitch and cranked a home run to left field. The home runs continued in the third inning, as Cody Gaertner and John Adryan each came through with solo shots to give Ohio a commanding 5-1 lead through three innings.
Cardinal starter Zach Plesac started to hold his ground if only for a moment in the middle innings, silencing the Bobcat bats with two straight scoreless innings. That momentum on the mound for the Cardinals proved to only be temporary, however, when sophomore Ty Black launched the game’s fourth homer into the grass beyond the left field fence.
From then on, MAC Pitcher of the Year senior Logan Cozart did what he has done all season long — slam the door. He entered the game with the bases loaded in the sixth and just one out, and coaxed a strikeout and a pop out from the Cardinals without allowing a run. He then pitched a scoreless seventh before allowing a run thanks to a pair of bad-luck infield singles in the eighth. Cozart pitched around a leadoff walk in the ninth inning to finish off Ball State and clinch the title for Ohio.
Cozart was awarded the tournament MVP award for his efforts this week. Meanwhile, John Adryan continued his tournament hot streak with three hits on Sunday, including his home run and two runs scored.
Third-year head coach Rob Smith becomes just the second Bobcats coach to lead Ohio to an NCAA berth.
@_tonywolfe_
