The scenery was set for Ohio’s Tuesday afternoon matchup against in-state opponent Youngstown State. The sun was shining and with Luke Olsen on the mound for the Bobcats, spirits were high at Bob Wren Stadium.
Things did not get off to the most ideal start, however. Olsen allowed a run on a wild pitch, and then two additional runs from an RBI single from Youngstown State’s Alejandro Covas.
Ohio would respond in the batter's box in the bottom of the second with Clay Cutter walking to bring home Trae Cassidy, who was making his first start as a Bobcat.
Things looked grim just an inning later as Ohio found itself down 12 runs after a nightmare of a third inning that saw Youngstown State put 10 runs on the board.
The 13-1 hole that Ohio found itself in was partly its own doing. Pitchers Landon Price and Carson Denham pitched the entirety of the third inning and gave up a combined 3 runs off walks and hitting batters.
Youngstown State’s Derrick Tarpley Jr. provided Youngstown State with power to go along with the walks as he blasted a 3-run home run to deep center field that hit the top of the batter's eye.
“We’re having some walk issues and things like that,” Ohio Head Coach Craig Moore said. “We’re falling behind in counts. You got to get ahead in counts because then you can actually pitch ... It puts the hitters at a disadvantage.”
With Ohio down big Jacob Tate, the dugout got together to rally the troops in an attempt to spark a comeback.
“Tate, one of our leaders on the staff, he brought us together and said a couple of words to get us fired up and ready to go,” centerfielder Gideon Antle said. “That was awesome man, just having other leaders on the team that are like ‘Look we need to take initiative, we need to get after it.’ We know we’re never out of a game.”
Whatever was said by Jacob Tate worked wonders as the Bobcats would respond immediately, matching the Penguin's explosive inning with a 10-run inning of their own.
Similarly to Youngstown State’s mammoth inning, Ohio would earn a lot of its runs off free passes to first, with 3 Ohio runs scoring from walks and being hit by pitches.
Bryce Smith would get the bats going, as he laced a triple down the third base line that would send all three men on base home.
Gideon Antle continued his scorching hot hitting as well, smoking a ball into left-center field that scored 3 runs and brought Ohio within 2 runs of tying the game.
In the fourth inning, with two men on base and a chance to take the lead, Antle once again stepped in and stepped up, coming through with another 3-run home run to give Ohio the lead.
“I fouled a good pitch off and then I was able to get one that I could really handle,” Antle said. "I got it up in the air and I knew it was gone off of that, it was awesome.”
Ohio continued its scoring run as Antle would again use his bat to provide Ohio with juice, belting a double to left field that would score Ohio’s final 2 runs of the game.
Ohio led 21-14 going into the seventh inning. Despite strong efforts to retake the lead from Youngstown State, Ohio would hold onto its lead thanks in part to the strong pitching of Adam Beery, who came into the game and provided Ohio with three innings of stability.
Beery’s pitching efforts were enough to earn him the win, and Ohio a statement win after being down by 12 runs, finishing the game with a score of 21-19.
