Gauntlett Eldemire crushed the first pitch he liked and the celebration ensued.
In the bottom of the 13th inning, Eldemire hit a home run to left field off pitcher Ryne Romick to give Ohio the 9-8 victory over Akron at Bob Wren Stadium Saturday. He was mugged by his teammates as he crossed home plate.
The Bobcats had plenty of reasons to celebrate:
They rallied from a 7-3 deficit to complete a sweep of Saturday's doubleheader and series.
They avenged last season's sweep against the Zips.
The Bobcats also find themselves in first place in the Mid-American Conference East Division and off to their best start in the MAC since 1997.
We hung in there and hung in there and chipped away and battled back
coach Joe Carbone said. Sooner or later somebody was going to do something good to help us win.
For Ohio, it was Eldemire who did that.
Although the Bobcats had 15 hits entering the 13th, Eldemire had none in five appearances.
I told him it was about time he did something Carbone joked. My prostate was killing me I didn't dare go to the bathroom.
I was afraid I was going to miss something.
Eldemire certainly didn't miss on the first pitch he saw.
Carbone said he thought Eldemire was being too passive in his previous plate appearances. So Eldemire didn't bother to wait when he saw what he thought was a slider coming his way. After eight hours of baseball
he wasn't going to wait around for the perfect pitch.
It's good to get them back and get some revenge, Eldemire said. It felt good to finally get this day over with and sweep them.
Eldemire wasn't the only one who wanted to get the long day over with.
Closer Bryce Butt had pitched five innings and Carbone had already used six other pitchers.
Butt had already pitched 1 1/3 innings on Friday and another 1 1/3 in game one
You never expect as a reliever or a closer to throw five innings, Butt said. Obviously I was getting a little bit tired from working the previous game and the day before that.
I just dug deep and gave it everything I had.
Butt made it interesting for his Bobcats in the 13th.
With one out, designated hitter Kyle Hallett singled to right field. Next, first baseman Brian Kordal also singled to right field and Hallett advanced to third.
Butt didn't panic, however. He struck out third baseman Ryan Frazee looking on a 3-2 pitch. Kordal then stole second to put two Zips runners in scoring position, but Butt got right fielder Brett Savage to fly out.
Bryce was fabulous
Carbone said. He got the job done for us Friday and came in the first game and we were trying not to use him in the second game
but he ended up pitching five shutout innings
so he did a great job.
The win was much more thrilling than Ohio's previous two of the weekend. The Bobcats (19-14, 12-3 MAC) cruised to a 10-4 win Friday and a 9-4 win in game one Saturday against Akron (9-26, 6-9 MAC).
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