There are about five weeks left in the regular season, and the Mid-American Conference title is up for grabs.
Four teams will make the MAC Tournament, but only one will get home field advantage: the No. 1 team.
Kent State currently leads the MAC with a 12-3 conference record and a 25-10 overall record. However, Kent State does have a few losses to middle-of-the-pack opponents. It dropped two games to No. 4 Central Michigan in late March and lost one to No. 7 Toledo a week later.
No. 2 Ohio swept Toledo and took one away from No. 4 Central Michigan, but it has yet to face Kent State. Ohio has a nonconference series this weekend against Indiana, whom Kent State and No. 3 Ball State both lost to. It is also worth it to note that Ball State and Central Michigan are tied with a 10-5 MAC record.
The Indiana series will be a strong measure of whether or not Ohio will be able to handle the last half of its conference schedule. It will face Kent State the last week of April and Ball State the first week of May.
After that, Ohio will face Western Michigan and Akron. Western Michigan beat Bucknell, who beat Ball State, during the nonconference portion of the season. Western Michigan also went on to beat Ball State, but also lost to Akron and Northern Illinois — two of the bottom three teams in the conference. Akron lost two of three to Ball State, Toledo, Western Michigan and all three to Kent State.
Indiana beat Miami 13-5 earlier this season and later swept Morehead State. However, two of its wins against Morehead State were close, as were the wins against Kent State and Ball State. Indiana still has one more game against Ball State on April 25.
Ohio didn’t fare too well against Morehead State. The two had a slugfest in late March, which ended with Ohio taking a tough 19-14 loss. The next time the two played, Ohio lost 15-2 in seven innings.
The Bobcats have only won two of 14 nonconference games this season. They need to put up at least a solid performance against the Hoosiers to test their abilities against the rest of the MAC. However, there is hope.
Ohio beat Central Michigan, who swept Ball State and won its series against Kent State in close margins. Indiana beat both of those teams. Central Michigan will not play Indiana this season, however the two would be close in competition.
The MAC is anyone’s game at this point. The winner of the MAC might not be decided until the last series of the regular season when Kent State plays Ball State, but Ohio has a strong chance of taking the regular season title.
