With nine Mid-American Conference games remaining, the Ohio baseball team still has time to rebound and earn a spot in the post-season tournament. With the Bobcats winning just one of three games for the second straight weekend, however, time is beginning to run short.
After taking an 8-1 decision against Buffalo (10-24 overall, 3-7 MAC) on Friday, Ohio dropped the next two contests to the Bulls in a three-game set at Bob Wren Stadium.
The weekend left Ohio (13-23, 6-9 MAC) with a sub .500 conference record and a spot in the lower half of the MAC East standings. The top two teams in each division qualify for the MAC Tournament, with the two remaining teams with the best winning percentage, regardless of division, rounding out the field of six.
At 6-9 in the conference, the Bobcats are currently on the outside looking in.
This hurts a lot
Ohio coach Joe Carbone said. You're not out of it of course until you're mathematically out of it so who knows maybe we'll turn it around
but we have to play better than we have. There's no doubt about that.
Ohio looked to be destined for a big weekend on Friday, as starter Chris Bova (4-5) threw a complete game one-hitter to lead the Bobcats.
The lone blemish in the hit column came early on, and almost didn't happen at all. In the second, Buffalo's Chris McGraw hit a soft chopper up the middle that nipped Bova's mitt. Shortstop Bryant Witt fielded the ball and fired to first, but McGraw beat the throw.
I thought it was hit a lot harder than it was
Bova said. It was a slow chopper back to me
and it went under my glove. It was a bang-bang play at first.
From there Bova cruised, and the offense came alive to help the cause. Designated hitter Anthony Gressick hit his team-leading eighth and ninth home runs to finish off the Bulls.
Saturday, Buffalo broke a 2-2 deadlock in the 10th inning and held off a late Ohio rally to take game two, 4-3.
After recording the first out in the 10th, reliever Derek Witt (2-3) surrendered three consecutive base hits and a sacrifice fly to give Buffalo a 4-2 edge.
I felt like I threw pretty good
but I just made a couple bad pitches
and they capitalized on it
Witt said. I left the ball up the zone. I got ahead in the count early and just didn't put the ball where I wanted it.
In the bottom half, Ohio threatened. With the bases loaded and one out, leftfielder Willie Walker hit a line shot, but it was right at the Buffalo rightfielder. Bryan Buck tagged up from third to score, but Ohio didn't touch the scoreboard again.
Walker's ball was just feet from finding the right-center gap and likely tying the score if not giving Ohio the walk-off victory.
Willie's ball gets in there
we win the game
Carbone said. He hit's the ball right on the nose
