Saturday's double header between Ohio and Bowling Green was a tale of two teams. The Bobcats dominated game one with fantastic defense, winning 9-3. They went into game two with all of that energy, but then fell flat, and the Falcons controlled game two with a score of 8-1.
The complete 180 in the two games can ultimately be boiled down to Ohio’s pitching. In game one, Ohio’s ace graduate pitcher Skipp Miller pitched the entire game.
Despite Miller having the worst statistical season of her career by her standards, she has still been very dominant. She has boasted an ERA of 3.88 this season, which puts her 11th in the MAC in ERA. She also has a whopping 78 strikeouts this season, which is fourth best in the MAC.
They always say the best ability is availability, and Miller is one of the most reliable pitchers in the MAC with the third most innings pitched. She has also tallied 14 wins this season, which puts her at number one in the MAC in wins, with second place being three wins behind.
Miller kept her dominance going into game one. She pitched six of the seven innings while only allowing three hits and getting five strikeouts. The Bobcats’ offense didn’t fully get going until the fifth inning. While Ohio’s offense was struggling early in the game, Miller made sure Bowling Green didn’t get any offensive momentum.
By the time Miller left the game, the Bobcats were cruising to the dominant win.
“She spun the ball really well,” Ohio head coach Jenna Hall said about Miller’s performance. “I think accuracy was a huge help for her, and just keeping people off balance when she’s got that hard drop curve mixed in with her off speeds.”
Ohio’s junior pitcher Mikie Lieving started game two. She has been struggling this season as her season ERA is 2.53 runs higher than her career average from her first two seasons.
Lieving only stayed in the second game for a little over two innings while allowing six hits as the Falcons took a 2-0 lead.
Senior pitcher Keegan Moore then came in to replace Lieving. Despite Moore’s rough performance Saturday, she has had a great season. She has the best ERA she has ever had in a season, while also tallying 41 strikeouts so far. She averaged a little over 12 strikeouts a season before this one.
On Saturday, Moore pitched less than one inning. In that time, she allowed three hits with only one strikeout, leading to five Bowling Green runs.
The Bobcats pitcher struggled to get a strikeout many times throughout this game.
“We just have to execute late in the count,” Coach Hall said about the troubles with pitching. “I thought when they did get their hits, we fell behind.”
Finally, sophomore pitcher Ally Meyers came in and pitched the final four innings. Despite Meyer's inexperience, she pitched the best for the Bobcats in game two. In her four innings, she had three strikeouts and zero runs.
It is hard to put all the blame on pitching, as the offense was also struggling in game two, only getting six hits and one run, but the pitching was a clear problem in the game.
“It's the goldfish mentality,” Coach Hall said about her pitchers bouncing back. “It’s a quick turnaround; we don’t have time to sit on it. You just have to evaluate with a little less emotion.”
Ohio’s trying to bounce back in Sunday's rubber match, with their ace pitcher Skipp Miller in the circle.
