The Pittsburgh Panthers knocked the Ohio baseball team out of the game before the Bobcats even came to bat for the first time, rolling over the 'Cats last night, 15-1.
This may be the worst game since I've been here that we've been involved in as far as hitting
pitching and playing defense all rolled into one said Ohio coach Joe Carbone. I can't remember a game when we've been this bad in all three phases since I've been here.
Ohio starter Andrew Shisila pitched 1/3 of an inning before being taken out of the game. The right-hander allowed four runs, three of them earned, on four hits in his short outing.
After getting Pittsburgh's (14-20) lead off hitter David Cline to ground out to second, the next five Panther batters all reached base. Jimmy Mayer singled and stole second and then advanced to third on a throwing error by Ohio catcher Chris Klimko. Jim Negrych then reached first on the Bobcats' second error of the inning, which drove in Cline for Pittsburgh's first run of the game.
Morgan Kielty and Rob Lawler then hit back-to-back singles and both scored on Peter Parise's single up the middle to increase the Panthers' lead to 4-0.
Pittsburgh added a run in the third inning and tacked on three more in the fifth to take an 8-0 advantage.
Ohio reliever Zach Elmer pitched the sixth inning and was the only Ohio pitcher that prevented the Panthers from scoring a run.
The Panthers batted around in the eighth inning and took advantage of a hit batsman, a wild pitch and a passed ball to extend their lead to 12-0 and then scored three runs in the ninth to make the score 15-0.
Ohio (12-17, 5-7 Mid-American Conference) scored a run in the bottom of the ninth to take away a Pittsburgh shutout. Bryant Witt singled and Brandon Besl doubled to lead off the Ohio ninth. Witt then scored Ohio's only run on a Hayden Johnston groundout.
Besl, who had two hits in last night's game, said he made adjustments in his last two at-bats.
He did set me up the same way as he set the batter up in front of me. He went fastball up and then fastball right down the middle and I was kinda guessing on that one.
The Bobcats loaded the bases twice, in both the second and seventh innings, but were unable to push runs across. Ohio only managed eight hits off the Pittsburgh pitchers.
Well basically as a team
we were chasing a lot of high pitches
and you typically can't get on top of those pitches
outfielder Willie Walker said. We popped a lot of things up and struck out a few times on some high pitches.
Shisila dropped to 0-3 on the season, while Pittsburgh starter Chad Baker improved to 2-0.
Carbone said Ohio is not playing consistently and keeps making the same mistakes .
We're just talking about the same thing over and over and over again
Carbone said. They've (the players) got to get themselves mentally ready for the first inning and once again we make some defensive mistakes. A lot of that
although it's physical
a lot of that is just being mentally ready
mentally tough.
The Bobcats look to rebound from last night's loss as they close out their six-game home stand tonight against Xavier. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. at Bob Wren Stadium.
