Before Desirae Villanueva’s first career start at the Ohio Softball Field, coach Jodi Hermanek reminded Villanueva that the Bobcat offense would produce for her.
After the third inning, her teammates owed her.
Rutgers broke a tie in the top of the third by scoring on a wild throw to second base. Villanueva was already nervous about her first home outing, and now she had allowed a tie-breaking run through no fault of her own.
But the Bobcats rallied to pay their young pitcher back. Ohio scored seven runs in the third, fourth and fifth innings. Villanueva fed off of the momentum during the rest of the game for a 9-3 win.
“When they came back after the couple errors, that really left a load off my shoulders,” Villanueva said. "Once we got the lead, I got into the groove.”
After the third inning, Villanueva allowed three baserunners and no runs en route to her first collegiate complete game. The more run support her teammates gave her, the stronger Villanueva became on the mound.
So strong, in fact, she even surprised her coach.
“I was not expecting her to take us seven,” Hermanek said. “Getting seven out of her was huge for us.”
The run support that propelled Villanueva forward came from a variety of places. Six different Bobcats recorded runs batted in Sunday afternoon, and eight different players scored a run.
Third baseman Alex Day attributed the 17 combined runs the Bobcats scored in the two games against Rutgers this past weekend to her hitting coach, Jeremy Manley. She said Manley has so much movement on his pitches in practice that it makes opposing pitchers easier to handle.
Hermanek used four different pitchers in both tournaments this season. Last year, it was rare that anyone not named Savannah Jo Dorsey or Danielle Stiene saw time in the circle.
As Hermanek said, using her newfound pitching depth to rest her two workhorses will help the Bobcats immensely late in the season.
Early in the week, it appeared the Bobcats wouldn’t be able to throw any pitchers this weekend because of rain in San Diego. Instead, they made themselves a marquee matchup for future opponents with a 5-0 weekend record while breaking in their home field.
The undefeated weekend has the Bobcats at 9-1 overall, but they know what a strong record entails. They cannot act as if they are a complete team yet even though they might look the part.
“The more you win, the more the target’s on your back,” Hermanek said. “We have to keep grinding.”
