After winning just 11 games in 2014, the Bobcats won 20-plus games in 2015.
Ohio didn’t have to do much this year to improve upon the disaster season it had in 2014.
The Bobcats won just 11 games in 2014. They had separate losing streaks of nine and 12 games. They gave up double digit runs in a game 14 times.
But from the first pitch of 2015, things were different.
They got out of the gate with a 6-0 start, took Georgia Tech and Ohio State to extra innings and were among the best teams in the Mid-American Conference throughout the season.
After beginning with six straight wins, during which Ohio’s hitting scored 11 runs a game, it then lost four in a row before winning another four in a row.
After an 11-40 season one year ago, Ohio found itself at 10-4 early in its bounce-back campaign, and it was never in danger of slipping below .500 from that moment forward.
Even with the positive start, however, there were questions.
The team was relying on the offense to carry it through games, as the starting pitching staff struggled to win innings on a regular basis. The Bobcats were getting into a pattern of needing to play from behind — a style of play they weren’t going to be able to keep up if they expect to be taken seriously in the MAC.
“Coming into the year, we knew our pitching was going to be a question,” said coach Rob Smith. “I thought we were going to be good offensively; I thought we were going to show improved defense, the question was going to be how quickly we were going to be able to develop that pitching staff.”
Coaches and players alike remained adamant through the middle parts of the season that the starting pitching would come around, and sure enough, it did just that.
During a sweep of Buffalo, Ohio’s first MAC series win of the season, all three of the Bobcats’ starting pitchers lasted at least five innings, a streak that hadn’t happened yet until that point in the season.
From there, things started to click.
Ohio hit a hiccup in dropping two out of three against Bowling Green at home the following weekend, but quickly amended the loss with its biggest series win of the season — winning two out of three games in Kent State, who, at the time, sat at the top of the MAC East standings.
“People kind of doubted us at the beginning of the season, and that kind of put a chip on our shoulder,” said senior outfielder Tyler Wells. “We’ve been giving it all of our effort and picking up a series win at Kent State was huge.”
The upcoming season could present its own share of challenges, with guys like Wells, closer Logan Cozart and record-setting outfielder Jake Madsen leaving because of graduation. But the return of other core players, such as outfielders Mitch Longo and Manny DeJesus, catcher Cody Gaertner and pitchers Jake Miller and Connor Sitz, could mean we could expect one more year of MAC contention out of this bunch.
@_tonywolfe_
aw987712@ohio.edu
