Mitch Longo had a second chance and it was thrown right over the plate. He crushed it.
Longo led off the ninth inning with a double and later scored on a wild pitch to give Ohio a 6-5 walk-off win Saturday afternoon against Buffalo at Bob Wren Stadium.
Down 4-3 in the bottom of the sixth, the Bobcats loaded the bases with one out. Pinch hitter Tony Giannini lined out to left field and no runners advanced. That brought Longo, Ohio’s best hitter since moving to the leadoff spot, up to the plate.
Buffalo countered Ohio's best when they brought in their closer, Mike Kaelin, to defuse the threat. On a full count, Kaelin got the flyout to left field that he needed. Longo crouched by first base and slammed his helmet in the dirt.
All Longo wanted was to have a second chance.
“And I knew I was going to,” he said. “He beat me that first at-bat and I saw everything he had. I knew he wasn’t going to do it again.”
The next inning, Kaelin began to bend.
Ohio trailed 5-3, but Manny De Jesus scored on a wild pitch and Cody Gaertner added an RBI-single to tie the game.
The eighth went by quickly. In the top of the ninth, Ohio reliever Tom Colletti (2-1) got himself out of a jam with a swinging strikeout. All of a sudden, Longo was back in the batter’s box.
“I knew we were going to win right when the inning started,” he said.
Longo drilled a two-hopper to the wall in right center and, while standing on second, let out a neck-bulging yell.
Next up was De Jesus, who squared for a sacrifice bunt to move Longo to third. Instead, his bunt hugged the lip of the grass perfectly along the third base line for a hit. That put runners on the corners with Ohio’s three-hitter, Rudy Rott, up to bat.
By that point, coach Rob Smith knew how valuable it was that Kaelin had been called into the game in the sixth. Closers aren’t supposed to pitch that long.
“I knew if we could just hang in there, I thought he might fatigue a little bit and we’d get to him,” Smith said. “And that’s exactly what happened.”
The first pitch to Rott was outside and in the dirt. It skipped up high off catcher Kyle Brennan’s shin guard and bounced toward the Bobcat bench. Longo was well on his way to the plate.
Brennan didn’t bother to go pick it up. Longo touched the plate, flung his helmet in the air and was bombarded by teammates and Gatorade cups.
For Ohio (14-17, 4-5 Mid-American Conference), it sealed a two-win day and a critical first series win in the MAC.
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For Longo, it was a sign of what the Bobcats can and should accomplish as a team.
“After my at-bat (in the ninth), it kind of sent a message to our dugout that we’re not going to lose this game,” he said. “And pretty much a message to everyone else in our conference that we’re not done. We’re not laying down. We’re here to stay.”
@JordanHorrobin
jh950614@ohio.edu
