Ohio has played 19 games this season and is just over a third of the way through the regular season. In those 19 games, the Bobcats’ hitting numbers have fluctuated, particularly within a given series.
But looking more broadly, the Bobcats have hit the ball well. Ohio has 185 hits and 17 home runs. As a team, the Bobcats are batting .276.
So far this season, the Bobcats have two players who are batting over .300 – Rudy Rott and Nick Bredeson. Rott is hitting .390 and Bredeson is batting .348.
Along with Rott and Bredeson, Ohio also has five players who are batting .260 or higher. Devon Garcia, Tony Giannini, Ryan Sargent, Dan McCauley and Sebastian Fabik have contributed to the offense’s solid start to the season.
Spencer Ibarra and Connor Callery were the Bobcats’ top two hitters last season but graduated, so Ohio needed players to try and replicate their offensive production.
Rott and Bredeson have been those players who have been leaders on the offense. Rott leads the team in hits (30), and Bredeson is second on the team with 23.
Rott was a top-tier hitter last season, too. He ranked third on the team in batting average behind Ibarra and Callery. Rott also ranked second on the team in hits last season, right behind Ibarra.
While Rott has had success at the top for the Bobcats’ offense, Bredeson’s numbers have been up at the start of this season. Last season, Bredeson finished batting .265. Now, he’s hitting nearly .350.
If Rott and Bredeson can continue to be leaders on offense, then the Bobcats can flourish on that end.
What’s important as well is that Rott and Bredeson have accounted for a combined 17 RBIs. They’re helping to drive runs in, and the team is benefiting from it.
The Bobcats have 107 runs this season, nearly a third of the number of runs they finished with last season; Ohio finished with 328 runs last season.
Bredeson and Rott haven’t had to carry most of the offensive load, either. Garcia and Giannini both have 22 hits, and Trevor Hafner has 19 hits. Hafner leads the team with 16 RBIs.
As Ohio comes off its series against South Carolina Upstate, it will play its first Mid-American Conference series of the season on the road against Bowling Green this weekend.
