Two weeks ago, Ohio had lost its fifth straight Mid-American Conference series and offense was coming at a premium.
What a difference a couple weeks make, as the Bobcats won their second straight conference series with a 14-8 win against Buffalo on Sunday.
The bats that had been quiet for a good deal of the season have woken up in a major way. Ohio tallied 25 runs against Buffalo in the three-game set and received contributions up and down the lineup.
In the series finale, seven of the nine hitters in the Bobcats' lineup recorded a hit and all but one player crossed home plate.
A sacrifice fly off the bat of outfielder Tyler Wells started off the scoring in the first, but the Bobcats would follow with a five run inning in the second.
Shortstop Garrett Black, who went 3 for 4 Sunday with three runs scored and two RBIs, opened the scoring in the second, scoring third baseman Ty Black and designated hitter Taylor Emody.
After being hampered by a broken hand a week before the season began, Garrett has been red hot of late, recording eight hits in the series and 14 hits in Ohio’s last six games.
“At the beginning of the season, it just really wasn’t going for me,” he said. “I just kind of changed my focus and just said I’ve got nothing to lose. I couldn’t get any worse. So, you know, (I’m) going out there playing as hard as I can every single at-bat, just taking it one at-bat at a time and it’s been working.”
Coach Rob Smith added that people are starting to see the player that Garrett is capable of being.
The Bobcats (10-33, 6-16 MAC) would tack on another run off an error by Buffalo center fielder Jimmy Topps and then scored two more off a single by center fielder Tyler Wells and a sacrifice fly by first baseman John Adryan.
Smith first moved Adryan to first and Jake Madsen to the outfield to get more bats in the lineup and the gamble is paying dividends in the last two weeks.
“He’s doing extremely well in right field,” Smith said of Madsen. “Jake’s a team player and the fact that he was open-minded enough to go out there and play is a big credit to him. Outside of that, he’s a good outfielder.”
After scoring a run in the third and fifth innings, Ohio scored three more in the sixth with RBI singles by Adryan and Ty Black along with a sacrifice fly off the bat of Emody.
The scoring continued in the seventh, with a single by Chandler Geller scoring Wells. And in the eighth, the Bobcats scored two more on an RBI double by Adryan and a sac fly by Ty, who also had a strong game at the plate, going 4 for 4 with two RBIs and three runs scored.
“I saw the ball really well today and stuck with the approach we had all game,” Ty said before being pelted with two water balloons by his teammates. “Yeah, I just executed. I finally got some (hits) to fall.”
Sophomore Connor Sitz started on the mound for Ohio and cruised through the first three innings before being tagged for one run in the fourth and five in the fifth before he could finish the inning.
Sitz finished the game with 4 2/3 innings pitched, six runs (five earned), one walk and no strikeouts.
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