When he met with the media following his final game in Athens after 24 years, the first thing Ohio men’s baseball coach Joe Carbone said was, “It’s been a great run.”
The good news for the Bobcats is that run is not yet over.
After falling in two of three games against rival Miami in Carbone’s last homestand, Ohio still has a chance to make its skipper’s last impression of the program one worthy of more than a bittersweet smile.
After wrapping up their regular season one game better than .500 and winning 16 of their 27 conference games, the Bobcats have the potential to make an impact on a higher scale beginning Wednesday at the Mid-American Conference Tournament in Avon, Ohio.
But they won’t have much time to regroup after the less-than-optimal weekend.
The Bobcats take the field again Wednesday at 9 a.m. against Western Michigan, one of two MAC teams Ohio didn’t face during the regular season.
Farewell festivities
Ohio is used to having plenty of “hoopla” at its home games, as one of the between-inning promotions pits two spectators against one another in a hip-wiggling hula hoop competition on top of the home dugout, but there was an exceptional amount of hype surrounding Wren Stadium on Saturday for Carbone’s final home game.
The Wren was packed shoulder-to-shoulder behind the backstop. There were giveaways galore and plenty of stories to go around Saturday, as players, coaches and friends flocked to the ballpark for “Carbone Day.”
But the Bobcats couldn’t emulate their come-from-behind win Friday and stumbled to a disappointing 6-3 loss.
Meaningless momentum
Carbone has never been one to rely much on momentum, instead choosing to tackle each game individually with only a shrug and quip about how “baseball is different.”
“It’s different pitchers throwing at different times, and sometimes you face a real good pitcher and tee off on him,” Carbone said.
That mantra rings true from one dugout to the other, which means none of the Bobcats are walking away from the weekend rattled or set back. Instead, their eyes are fixed forward on their next challenge: bucking the Broncos.
Western Michigan sneaked into the fifth seed by winning eight of its last 11 games, whereas the Bobcats jumped between a six-game losing streak and a four-game winning streak heading into the regular season’s final weekend.
Western Michigan sits a half game ahead of Eastern Michigan and well ahead of Miami and Buffalo, who round out the eight-team bracket
jr992810@ohiou.edu
