Baseball doesn't want a mishap like last weekends 9-3 drubbing to Buffalo.
Last Friday Ohio coach Rob Smith was not happy.
He was standing in the dugout of a cold Bob Wren Stadium with a slight drizzle coming down on Athens. He was in a somber mood, as Ohio had just been handed a 9-3 beat down from Buffalo.
As Ohio heads into this weekend's series against Bowling Green, things have drastically changed since last week.
Ohio is now on a three-game win streak since that loss to Buffalo.
“We came out with better purpose and intent on Sunday,” Smith said. “The decision that our players made to come out with that intent has a lot to do with the momentum we have now.”
The Bobcats won both games in the Sunday doubleheader against Buffalo and then won a close 4-3 game against Dayton on Tuesday. What Ohio showed in the doubleheader was toughness, Smith said, which will help in overcoming adversity in postseason play farther down the road.
Now, though, the Bobcats can only hope the momentum will continue into the weekend series.
During Ohio’s win streak, the bats have performed better at the right times.
“They’re a scrappy team,” Smith said of Bowling Green. “They're going to pitch it and keep the score down in a lot of cases. We know we’re going to be in three tight games and they're going to be highly contested."
For the Bobcats to be successful this weekend, it starts at the mound.
Ohio's pitchers are going to need to be able to throw the ball over the plate, Smith said, and make the other team beat them. He will send his usual set of starters in: Jake Miller, Jake Rudnicki and Connor Sitz.
Ohio must start the game off strong — something it hasn’t done as much as Smith would like so far this year.
{{tncms-asset app="editorial" id="d6bc221c-ff6f-11e5-9cec-83e6ae98a20a"}}
“We’re all really excited for it (another chance at a Mid-American Conference Championship),” Jake Roehn said on his chance of getting back into postseason play. “We talked as a team after the first Buffalo game and said that’s not going to happen anymore. That can’t happen anymore.”
@Pete_Nakos96
pn997515@ohio.edu
