A day after Ohio exploded for five runs against Iona, the Bobcats found themselves on the losing end of a 3-0 score to put their season on the brink.
Liberty’s Kenzie Friesen and Julia DiMartino combined to shutout the Ohio offense and only allow two hits in the Lady Flames’ victory over the Bobcats on Wednesday.
Friesen got the start and picked up the victory while throwing 4 2/3 innings with four strikeouts.
DiMartino came in and threw 2 1/3 perfect innings with three strikeouts to pick up the save.
Madison Claytor and Michaela Dorsey picked up Ohio’s only hits in the game off of Friesen. As a team, Ohio only had five baserunners in Wednesday’s loss after having 13 in the victory Tuesday.
Savannah Jo Dorsey was in the circle for Ohio, but not for long as Ohio’s ace had her shortest start of the season. She threw just two innings and allowed two runs on two walks with one hit.
Danielle Stiene threw five innings in relief of Dorsey. Stiene allowed just one unearned run on four hits while striking out six.
The lone-error in Wednesday’s game makes four errors for Ohio, which has led to two unearned runs, in the National Invitational Softball Championship.
The loss to Liberty means Ohio is now just one loss away from being eliminated from the NISC Tournament and seeing an end to the season.
For the Bobcats to continue their season and win the regional, they must defeat the University of North Carolina at Wilmington on Thursday morning and then beat Liberty twice later in the day.
A team winning three games in one day to win a tournament is not far from the memories of Ohio fans, however, as Kent State won three games Saturday including back-to-back victories over Ohio to win the Mid-American Conference Tournament.
Kent State started its incredible day by building momentum by beating Ball State 9-3.
Ohio will look to build momentum and take the first step back to winning the regional against UNCW at 10 a.m.
