Coach Rob Smith has said all season that the end goal of the season is to crack 12 conference wins and find a way into the Mid-American Conference Tournament.
After dropping two out of three games to Northern Illinois last weekend, that goal is falling out of reach. Ohio (10-29, 5-10 MAC) would have to win seven of its final 12 conference games to reach the 12-win mark.
The Bobcats haven’t helped themselves in MAC play, winning only one game in each of the five conference series they’ve played this season.
Smith wouldn’t say that a weekend series against Ball State (17-19, 6-9 MAC) in Muncie, Ind., is a desperation series for the Bobcats, but did admit that the team needs to step up its intensity.
“It’s certainly a series we need to win if we have any intentions of getting into the (tournament),” Smith said. “I think we have to go to Ball State and play well.”
Senior third baseman Ben Otto, who’s riding a hot streak in which he’s hit .393 with one home run and eight runs batted in his last 10 games, said the team can’t afford to tense up under pressure this weekend.
“It’s a huge series,” Otto said. “We have to play well and we have to play hard. If we let the game come to us, hopefully we can pull out a few wins.”
The Bobcats will face a Ball State team that features a pitching staff with a 4.03 earned run average, which is the fourth-lowest mark in the MAC.
Leading the Cardinal pitching staff is sophomore Scott Baker (8-1), whose 1.82 ERA is second-best in the conference among starting pitchers. Baker also sports a 3.5/1 strikeout to walk ratio, along with a walks and hits per inning pitched mark of 1.09.
On the mound for Ohio will be the normal weekend rotation of freshman Jake Miller (2-4, 4.98 ERA), senior Marck Paliotto (2-6, 5.43 ERA) and Connor Sitz (1-6, 6.70 ERA).
Sitz has put together back-to-back strong outings, pitching 14.1 innings and allowing four earned runs on 12 hits and one walk.
Recent starts by Sitz have inspired confidence in Smith, but he said he is still concerned about the performance of his inexperienced pitching staff.
“Any time you have two freshmen in the starting rotation, I don’t know if you ever feel 100 percent confident,” Smith said. “It’s because you don’t always necessarily know what you’re going to get, but (Miller and Sitz) have shown more consistency, especially Connor here of late.”
“I think we feel like we can stay with them a little bit longer and let them work through some trouble to eat up some innings,” he said.
ch203310@ohiou.edu
