After Ohio lost to Marshall on Tuesday for its fourth loss in its last five games, coach Rob Smith had a simple message to the Bobcats in the postgame huddle: Win the next series against Bowling Green.
Ohio failed to accomplish the first step towards the goal Friday night at Bob Wren Stadium. The Bobcats fell 7-3 in the first of three games against the Falcons.
The biggest challenge for the Bobcats came with runners on base. Ohio scored just three runs despite 11 hits, and it left 11 runners on base on Friday.
“I’ll credit their pitcher,” coach Rob Smith said, “he did a good job of exploiting our inability to adjust.”
The Bobcats (5-18, 1-3 MAC) placed runners on first and third in the second inning after two singles from Tanner Piechnick and Sebastian Fabik. Even with a runner in scoring position and no outs, Ohio was unable to score. Trevor Hafner popped out in the next at-bat, and Fabik was picked off after he gave himself too far of a lead at first base. Michael Richardson grounded out to end the inning and leave the Bobcats scoreless.
Ohio managed to stay in the game early by escaping tough innings.
Bowling Green left six runners on base in the first four innings, but it only managed to score runs in the third inning after Ohio starter Kenny Ogg found ways to strand runners in scoring position.
But things imploded in the fifth inning.
The Falcons finally capitalized when Dylan Dohanos doubled with the bases loaded and two outs to score three runs for the Falcons.
The Bobcats had a chance to come back but struggled with runners in scoring position again when Sebastian Fabik grounded out with bases loaded and two outs to end the fifth inning.
There was some hope for Ohio in the seventh inning when Aaron Levy led off with a deep home run to left field. The attack was short-lived, however, as the next three batters were all routine outs.
The Bobcats will face another tough test Saturday against the Falcons when Jack Liberatore (2-3, 2.70 ERA) takes the mound for Ohio against Tyler Hays (1-1, 3.76 ERA). Hays has allowed three earned runs in the last 19 innings for Bowling Green, so Ohio may struggle to find runs.
