Ohio wrapped up the Carolina Classic with a 4-1 record after finishing the tournament with a win over Longwood 5-0 on Sunday. Three of Ohio's four games came by shutout.
The Bobcats beat the Lancers to open and close the tournament and swept their Saturday games against Charlotte and Presbyterian. The lone loss came to host South Carolina on Friday.
“The one loss, to a good team, showed us what we needed to build on,” coach Jodi Hermanek said of Friday’s 10-0 loss to South Carolina. “We got those adjustments out of our team in the final three wins.”
Savannah Jo Dorsey led the pitching staff with three wins, two of which came on shutout efforts. Dorsey struck out 30 batters over her 19 innings of work.
Danielle Stiene also had a good weekend in the circle, authoring a shutout victory over Presbyterian and throwing a scoreless inning to help close out Longwood on Friday. Stiene struck out 17 batters in her 9.2 innings pitched this weekend.
Hermanek was happy with the success of the pitching staff this weekend against teams with the reputation of being big hitters.
Ohio outscored its opponents on the weekend by a combined total of 19-13.
The offense was paced by MacKenzie Brunswick, who went 6-for-11 at the plate this weekend. Brunswick went deep once and also hit two doubles with four RBIs this weekend.
Other key offensive contributors for the Bobcats were Natalie Alvarez who hit a home run and drove in four runs and Alex Day who went 6-for-17 at the plate with two RBIs.
“We had great approaches and attacked at the plate this weekend,” Hermanek said.
The defense was also solid this weekend, which let the Bobcats play with a more offensive lineup that led to some players being at different positions than normal. Brunswick, who worked most of the fall at shortstop, was the starting left fielder this weekend, and Alvarez, the backup catcher, was the starting right fielder.
“We did a great job with routine plays and working together,” Hermanek said.
The Bobcats will look to keep the momentum going into next week as they travel to California for the Campbell/Cartier Classic.
