Joe Carbone entered last night's game against Xavier with the mindset to give some of his pitchers extra work before the weekend.
After an 8-5 loss to the Musketeers in which his bullpen surrendered all eight runs, it might be an idea to reconsider.
We had to give all of these guys some time
Ohio coach Carbone said of the four relievers who made an appearance: Kurt Smith, Mike Babin, Kevin Mementowski and John Angelicchi.
All of the guys we threw today are older and they need to do a better job Carbone said. All of these guys we wanted to be ready for the weekend.
The trouble began in the fifth inning with Ohio holding a 3-0 lead. Kurt Smith, who had replaced Matt Smith after three innings of no-run, two-hit work, hit the first batter, Phil Bauer. The defense then failed to finish a 5-4-3 double-play on the next batter, and Adam Pasono made them pay with a two-run homer to left field. The Musketeers knocked in two more runs before the inning ended.
The pitchers had a plan going into the game, Carbone said, but they failed to follow through.
We've been preaching
preaching
preaching keep the ball down
he said. If you do
then you get ground balls instead of home runs.
Mementowski, who gave up two runs in the sixth and took the loss, said the pitchers understand their coach's mentality but have struggled putting it into action.
You see what happens when we get the ball up. People hit us
he said.
The Bobcats made three errors during the ball game, compared with Xavier's zero. These mistakes led to two unearned runs, both of which erased a 5-4 lead the Bobcats had managed to recapture in the bottom of the fifth.
Carbone said the errors were simply the results of misjudgments by the players, especially with their throws.
(The fielders were) trying to make something out of nothing
he said. Xavier deserved to win today. They were fundamental
and we weren't.
Centerfielder Matt Stiffler said no explanation was needed outside of the team's mentality.
We just didn't seem very awake today
he said.
Stiffler, for his part, continued to succeed on an individual level. He extended his team-record hitting streak to 23 games. When he was asked if he could explain his recent string of success, Stiffler could offer no explanation but the obvious.
There are times when people get on streaks
