Mid-American Conference coaches may want to reconsider their choice of the Bobcats as the conference's least likely to succeed team in 2006.
The Bobcats played nothing like a last-place team, taking four out of six contests - including two extra-inning victories - at the Pirate Classic in Greenville, N.C., in the team's first action of the year.
This weekend we were very successful
coach Jill Matyuch said, and we found out that there is some fight in this Bobcat squad.
Ohio (4-2) wasted no time showing its fight in its first game Friday against Towson.
After completing seven innings with the score knotted at one, Ohio rallied for two runs in the top of the eighth inning behind RBI singles from center fielder Kelly Rodriguez and third baseman Emily Futscher. Towson would tally one run in its bottom half of the inning, but the Bobcats held on for the 3-2 victory.
Second baseman Debbie Szalejko, who collected three hits in the victory, said the team played better as a group.
We played much more as a cohesive unit than we did in the past she said, and because of that we played really well.
After dropping two consecutive games to Campbell and Elon, respectively, the Bobcats, led by strong pitching from Zoe Heim and catcher Maghan Lunsford's first career home run, looked impressive in an 8-4 victory against Bucknell on Saturday.
Matyuch said she was impressed with the team's resilience after its tough loss to Elon, in which the Bobcats blew leads of 3-0 and 5-3 before being downed 7-5.
We could've rolled over and folded after that loss she said, but we didn't. We pulled out a big victory and ended up going on a little winning streak to finish the tournament.
Ohio's winning ways continued Sunday in victories over Army and East Carolina. Futscher helped the Bobcats dispose of the Black Knights early with a three-run home run in the first inning, leading to a 7-2 Bobcat victory.
This is the best I think we've ever hit the ball as a team
Futscher said.
The Bobcats concluded their stay in Greenville with their second extra-inning victory of the tournament, this time against its host, East Carolina. Tied at 7-7, going into the eighth inning, Heim held the Pirates scoreless and was rewarded with her third win of the tournament when Rodriguez drove in Szalejko with a walk-off single to give the Bobcats an 8-7 victory.
The Bobcats will be back in action when they return to North Carolina Friday for the Elon Invitational.
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Andrew Gribble
