Ohio's season ended a game earlier than coach Joe Carbone would have liked, but he won't complain about the year his Bobcats had.
Ohio lost to Eastern Michigan in the semifinals of the Mid-American Conference Tournament 13-4 Friday at VA Memorial Stadium in Chillicothe. The loss ended the Bobcats' season and the careers of many key players.
The Bobcats fell behind 13-0 early, and by the time they started scoring runs in the eighth inning, the game was all but over.
We just didn't get it going offensively
Carbone said. They just played a better ball game than us pitching wise and hitting wise.
Starter Rex Ingham allowed six runs in 1 1/3 innings. Zach Elmer didn't fare much better, allowing four runs in 2 2/3 innings. Despite the pitching struggles, Carbone said his staff shouldn't shoulder all the blame for the Bobcats' exit.
The wind was blowing out and it was a small ballpark Carbone said. It was a whole team effort of us not putting everything together in the two
games we lost.
Ohio (29-24, 18-9 MAC) did manage to win more games than it lost for the second consecutive season. The Bobcats also won more conference games than they have since 2000.
We had great leadership from our seniors Carbone said. I thought it was a pretty good run we put on.
We did more good things than we did bad things.
One of the good things was the play of left fielder Marc Krauss. He finished with a school-record 27 homers despite 12 rainouts.
I don't think anybody has hit the ball at Ohio University as well as Mark did this year, Carbone said.
Krauss finished with a .402 average and a slugging percentage of .852
also an Ohio record. His 70 RBIs tie the single-season mark and his 73 runs scored are tied for second all-time.
Because of the year that Krauss had
he will likely be a high-round draft pick
potentially ending his career with the Bobcats.
But he won't be the only important Ohio player leaving if he does decide to turn pro. The Bobcats will lose starters Hayden Johnston
Chris Klimko and Brandon Besl to graduation as well as pitchers Elmer
Chris Rigo
Matt Schlarb
Kevin Mementowski
Adam Goodpasture and Zach Fairbanks.
Yet a solid core of players remains.
Ohio will rely on center fielder Gauntlett Eldemire
