Cloudy gray skies hung over Marge Schott Stadium on Tuesday, foreshadowing an eerie result that has become all too familiar for the Bobcats this season.
Despite another strong outing from its pitching staff, Ohio (4-19) lost to Cincinnati (8-13) 4-1.
But the loss wasn’t because the Bobcats had a lack of scoring opportunities. Ohio had at least one runner in scoring position with less than two outs five times, but only capitalized on one of those chances.
Freshman outfielder John Adryan grounded into a bases-loaded double play, which scored third baseman Ben Otto in the top half of the eighth.
“I thought we swung the bat well,” coach Rob Smith said. “We hit some balls hard, and given the conditions, the hitters did a relatively decent job putting ourselves in a position to score runs. But we just did not execute at the right times.”
The Bobcats were also plagued by base running miscues.
With runners on second and third with one out in the third inning, shortstop Dan Schmidt was doubled off at second on a pop up to the shortstop by sophomore Cody Gaertner to end the scoring chance in the third.
In the fifth inning with runners at the corners and one out, an errant pickoff move by Cincinnati pitcher Christian McElroy got past first baseman Ian Happ. Otto advanced to second, but Nate Squires was picked off retreating back to third, effectively ending the Bobcat threat.
“Unfortunately we made some mistakes on the basepaths that I think cost us,” Smith said. “One situation, we had lost all awareness of what we were doing, and in others we were just too aggressive in scenarios where we probably should not have been.”
“It was really good intentions, but maybe just some poor decision making,” Smith said.
One of the positives Smith could draw on was a strong performance from his pitching staff. His goal was to have Nick Plys pitch six outs for him and get through the game through the strength of his bullpen.
After Plys allowed three earned runs on two hits and two walks in two innings, the rest of the bullpen allowed only one run in the final six innings.
In fact, the only run allowed after Plys’ exit was by sophomore first baseman Jake Madsen, who allowed the lone score on three hits in 1.2 innings.
“My job is just to go out there and put the ball over the plate,” Madsen said. “That’s really what my role as a pitcher on this team is. You know, eat up as many innings as possible when needed.”
The Bobcats will be back at Bob Wren Stadium on Wednesday for a matchup against Ohio State (15-6).
ch203310@ohiou.edu
