Ohio pitcher Emily Wethington stood tall on the mount yesterday as she pitched both games of a doubleheader, not faltering once. In the other dugout, Kent State had more trouble, giving up nine runs, including three homeruns, through three different struggling pitchers.
Ohio (20-20, 9-7 Mid-American Conference) won against Kent State (18-26, 8-7 MAC) with a final score of 7-3.
Kent State started its run production early, knocking three runs in the opening inning. Right fielder Beth Cinadr homered to bring in two of the Golden Flashes’ three runs.
Neither team found success in the second, but Ohio countered in the third with two runs to cut the gap to one.
“Our pitching staff did a little bit better of a job of keeping the hitters off balance,” coach Jodi Hermanek said. “We did a good job of hitting together with runners on in both games, and we just kept fighting and kept fighting through those games.”
Melissa Bonner provided aerial support for the Bobcats, hitting her first home run of the game in the third. The two-run blast made the score 3-2.
Bonner struck again in the sixth inning, homering in two of the three runs in the inning. Bobcat catcher Alexandria Basquez also had a solo home run to start off the sixth.
“She is a high batting average, offensive kid, so we expect her to get hits, and if it takes homeruns, then it’s just a luxury,” Hermanek said. “She just looked good at the plate today — she was hitting the ball well and kept them on her heels, so it was just a great day for her.”
Emily Wethington pitched both games for Ohio, allowing six hits and three runs in her seven-inning performance in the second performance.
“She did a great job on the second game of getting ahead of the batters and handled that pretty well,” Hermanek said. “She produced a lot of really good outcomes in game two. … It really helps when you have 10 strikeouts in a game.”
The Bobcats scored again the fifth inning after Alexis Joseph led the inning with a single to left field. Bonner later knocked a single to second base and advanced Joseph along the bases. Sara Clark came up to the plate next to drive both Bonner and Joseph home with a single to left field, taking the lead 4-3.
“The only thing that we think we could’ve done more with the bases loaded situation, but at the same time, when you have as many hits in a game as we did today, you are bound to leave runners on in situations,” Hermanek said. “Their offense is putting up really great numbers all weekend long.”
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