Before the season began, coach Jodi Hermanek’s goals were simple and concrete: win the Mid-American Conference and be the best team in Ohio.
After winning the MAC and holding a record of 10-5 against in-state opponents, Ohio will look to expand upon its preseason goals during this weekend's NCAA Regionals in Lexington, Kentucky. But the Bobcats enter as an underdog in the double-elimination Lexington Regional against three 40-win teams: Kentucky, DePaul and James Madison.
On paper it may seem that those schools overmatch Ohio, but the Bobcats (32-24) opened the season with a strong non-conference slate and won 12 of their first 13 games. Hermanek said she intentionally scheduled a tough start to prepare her team for the remainder of the season.
“We have equal experience as the others teams do to be there and play on this stage, and we expect to win,” Hermanek said. “We just need to make sure that we allow ourselves to stay within the game and not trying to do too much.”
The Bobcats will begin play in their first NCAA Championship since 1995 at 7:30 p.m. Friday against the host, Kentucky, which is coming off a 5-2 loss in the Southeastern Conference championship game. Similar to Ohio, the Wildcats have a strong pitching staff led by Kelsey Nunley and Lauren Cumbess. Kentucky (44-15) is also solid defensively after finishing fourth in the SEC with a .972 fielding percentage.
If Ohio intends to compete with No. 14-seeded Kentucky it will need to give sophomore pitcher Savannah Jo Dorsey run support, because the Wildcats average nearly five runs per game.
“We expect to play against a team that is aggressive offensively and a pitching staff that has a lot of experience,” coach Hermanek said. “We really have to do a great job of continuing our sound defense and attack mentality in the pitching circle. Offensively, we have to work to get more runs.”
The battery of Dorsey and freshman catcher Madison Claytor will have their hands full all weekend with the strong offenses in the regional. DePaul (41-9) packs a punch at the plate having amassed a .310 team batting average, which was almost 40 percentage points higher than anyone else in the Big East.
To go along with DePaul’s offense, it holds a 2.05 ERA, which was best in the conference and 0.52 better than Creighton in second. Kristen Verdun leads the Blue Demons in the circle with a record of 30-5 and a 1.72 ERA.
DePaul opens against James Madison (44-13), which boasts a pair of pitchers, Jailyn Ford and Heather Kiefer, who combined for a 43-13 record and a 1.56 ERA.
The Bobcats are in for a unique mix of tests this weekend, but throughout the season they rose to the occasion when the pressure was off. That could be the case again with the spotlight shining on Ohio's opposition.
“(We’re) hungry, that’s for sure,” coach Hermanek said. “We have every opportunity to win every game that we play, because that’s what we’ve always prepared ourselves to be — that’s the mentality of this team, too. I really believe that no one will settle for just a championship and we’ll go on that field on Friday and expect to win.”
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