In its opening weekend at Bob Wren Stadium, Ohio (3-7) finally got its first series win of the season. Saturday’s game was postponed due to weather, so Ohio played back-to-back games Sunday. Braving the end-of-winter cold, Ohio came out with a 2-1 record against Butler (4-6) on the weekend, splitting the final day of matchups.
Both games ended up being remarkably close, as the two teams put together 17 runs apiece in their Sunday games. However, it was Ohio that ultimately took the series by winning game three.
Game one
Ohio opened Sunday with a competitive game led by great stretches from both teams' pitching staffs that would ultimately end in an 8-7 Butler victory.
The Bobcats would run senior pitcher Jacob Tate out to the mound for his third start of the young season. The top of the first was a little shaky for Tate, who surrendered three walks and a base hit to the Bulldogs, leading to a sacrifice fly to grab an early 1-0 lead.
Ohio responded in the bottom of the frame with a single from freshman infielder Matt Ineich, extending his hitting streak to eight games. This was followed by a 2-run home run by sophomore outfielder Pauly Mancino, giving Ohio a 2-1 advantage.
It did not take long for the game to be brought back to even as Butler’s lead-off hitter in the second, Ryan Drumm, sent one over the left field wall for a home run, tying the game 2-2. Tate walked the next two hitters and was removed after just one inning of work, with senior pitcher Hudson Boncal replacing him.
Boncal was unable to limit the damage after inheriting two baserunners. The Bulldogs got to him for 6 runs, 2 credited to Tate, with a sac fly and a double down the line to score 3 runs and bust this one open early, as Butler led 8-2.
The Bobcats found some rhythm in the bottom of the third by collecting three one-out hits by sophomore infielder JR Nelson, Ineich and sophomore catcher Trae Cassidy, who collected an RBI to score Nelson. The Bobcats scored again on a fielder’s choice to cut the deficit to 4 runs, now trailing 8-4 after three innings.
Ohio struck again in the bottom of the fourth on a home run by senior Nick Dolan as the team kept clawing its way back, now down 8-5. The team continued the comeback path an inning later when sophomore Ben Slanker hit a 2-run blast, his second of the weekend, getting Ohio within a single run, trailing just 8-7.
“He has that capability to get extra base hits, the capability to drive the ball over the fence,” Ohio coach Craig Moore said.
Ohio was in position for a walk off with the bases loaded and one out, but Butler’s pitcher struck out the next batter and got the final out on a popup to the shortstop to win the contest.
Game two
The second game of the afternoon for Ohio required an extra inning to finish, stamping a successful weekend for Moore and his team with a 10-9 victory.
Ohio went to lefty senior pitcher Dillon Masters to start game three on the mound. Masters suffered early, surrendering three singles and a double in the opening inning. The bevy of Bulldog baserunners resulted in a 3-0 hole for the Bobcats to dig out of at the middle of the first.
“They weren’t real hard hits,” Moore said. “It was just hits that found holes or dropped in front of our outfielders.”
Although Ohio was able to recoup a pair of runs in the bottom of the first, bringing the game within a single score, Masters continued to allow hits in the second. By the time his third inning at the mound rolled around, Butler had brought its lead to a 5-2 margin.
From then on, Masters was lights out. In five innings, he flirted with a triple-digit pitch count and surrendered 11 hits and 5 earned runs, but Masters pitched three scoreless innings before leaving the mound. In the bottom of the fifth, Masters had left Ohio with a 5-3 Butler lead.
“It would have been very easy for him to get down on himself,” Moore said. “That’s not Dillon Masters … Dillon Masters is going to go out there and he is going to be competing every single pitch, and that’s what kept him out there.”
Completing a home run hat-trick across Ohio’s three games this weekend, Slanker knocked a pitch deep out of right field, scoring himself and Mancino to put the score at 5-5. Slanker finished the weekend with 3 hits, 7 RBIs and 5 runs.
Ohio cycled through a handful of arms in the game’s remaining innings, bringing in sophomore Jack Geiser in the sixth and Tyler Peck for the second time of the day in the seventh. Both conceded runs to end the inning tied, leading to an eighth-inning.
After a short shift from senior Adam Beery, Moore put in redshirt junior Dylan Eggl at the mound, who, though successful Friday, conceded a pair of runs. Ohio’s offense responded in turn, however, cycling base runners, and tying the game as Dolan stepped up to the plate with no outs on the board.
Dolan hit a single, allowing Cassidy to score the winning run and cap off the series with a win.
