Ohio had its chances. It got people on base, but it just struggled to push them across.
The Bobcats scored first, but only scored one more time after that. They left eight runners on base in a 6-2 loss in the rubber match of their series against Central Michigan on Sunday.
The bases in Bob Wren Stadium were filled with Bobcats throughout the game. They got seven hits and drew five walks. Those runners just weren’t driven in.
“We had a couple situations where we could have come up with a couple of big hits,” Trevor Hafner said. “But that’s just the game of baseball. Some days you get the big hits, some days you don’t.”
Despite the slight offensive struggles Sunday, it was a weekend of improvement. Saturday’s game featured a walk-off grand slam from Tanner Piechnick and Ohio exploded for 12 runs.
It was the first time Ohio had scored double-digit runs this season, and the most it had scored since it scored seven runs in a loss to South Carolina Upstate on March 2.
Despite the two losses in the series, coach Rob Smith saw some improvement in his team’s hitting.
“I’m really encouraged by the work we’ve done offensively here of late,” Smith said. “Our hitters competed well throughout the weekend. We’ve been struggling offensively quite a bit. Throughout the course of the weekend, we’ve gotten a lot better.”
Ohio started out the game strong at the plate. Trevor Lukkes doubled, and Rudy Rott drove him in. Rott, and Ohio, was taken off the base paths, however, when Zyon Avery grounded into a double play.
After that first run, Ohio didn’t garner any offense over the next two innings. From the fourth inning until the last inning, the Bobcats were able to get runners on. They were only able to score in the seventh, however, when Hafner drove in a run on a single up the middle.
Hits were there, the big hit wasn’t. Ohio loaded the bases in the eighth, down three runs at that point, but wasn’t able to push any across. Michael Richardson had a chance to cut into the Chippewas’ lead, but went down looking.
If Ohio can turn the runners on base into runs, it would find some success. It can get enough pitching, shown by Jack Liberator not having his best stuff, but only giving up two unearned runs in five-plus innings.
The Bobcats made steps in the right direction over the weekend. It’ll take more to get the hits to turn into runs that can turn into wins, but Smith liked what he saw.
“We found a lot of barrels today,” he said. “We had a lot of guys who had some quality at-bats.”
For Smith and Ohio, the weekend can give some hope that a team that’s 5-16 can turn it around. There was improvement as a team. To have that improvement at the start of the conference season, it gives an even stronger hope.
“I really liked their competitive spirit today, or even this weekend, that we’ve seen in other nonconference series,” Smith said. “League play is far more intense than other stuff, our guys did a good job rising to that occasion.”
