The Bobcats may have completed a quarter of their regular season already, but they've yet to play at the field where it'll spend the majority of its remaining games.
After 14 consecutive games on the road, Ohio will return to Bob Wren Stadium on Thursday to face Shawnee State (5-16) in what will be its first game at home since May 20 of last year. It will be the first of eight straight home games for the Bobcats, as they will also play a three-game series against Siena (3-10) this weekend.
The game against Shawnee State was scheduled following the cancellation of Tuesday's game against Marshall. Ohio had to previously cancel a game against Western Illinois.
"It's nice to be home," coach Rob Smith said. "Shawnee State was good enough and available to play us, so it’s going to be great to get out there on our home field and play in what I think will be decent weather.”
With just under a month played in the season, Ohio has mostly been a one-sided team, as the Bobcats pitching staff has allowed more than three runs scored in just seven total games and has tossed three shutouts.
Despite the impressive performances from the mound, Ohio has struggled to capitalize at the plate, where they've scored more than five runs in a game just four times this season.
The consistent pitching has given Ohio (8-6) a steady amount of wins however, so Smith isn't in any sort of hurry to get his offense to produce larger numbers.
"There's really no panic from my perspective," Smith said. "If we can sustain the pitching and the defense that we’ve put together and if we can find offensive improvement, which I’m confident that we will, I think that, come conference time, we’ll be closer to being a complete team.”
Redshirt junior Michael Klein has been Ohio's most crucial player at both the mound and the plate so far, as the right-hander currently leads the team's starters in the ERA category (0.64), as well as the batters in batting average (.315) and slugging percentage (.574).
Klein sees the offense picking up the pace as the season carries on, which should make Ohio one of the most well-rounded teams in the Mid-American Conference.
"We're starting to click," Klein said. "Our bats are going to get going here soon, but we know we have to play some ball to get those timely hits going. Our pitching will keep things low-scoring, so if we can put up some runs that’ll be fun."
ap012215@ohio.edu
