Ohio won its sixth straight series with a sweep over the Kent State Flashes on the road this weekend. Despite the Bobcats' complete conference dominance, this was their first series sweep of the season.
Ohio’s offense was rolling this weekend. Throughout the three games, the Bobcats averaged an insane 10.6 runs per game. They also averaged over 10 hits a game, while bombing six home runs. Out of those six bombs, three of them came from senior infielder Colleen Bare, while the other three came from graduate infielder Rylee McDaniel. They both had a home run in each game, while batting a combined 12 runs.
Game One:
The first game of Friday's doubleheader was probably the most dominant of the series. The Bobcats took over game one with a smothering offense that was too overwhelming for the Golden Flashes, and Ohio took the game in just five innings.
The Bobcats went into the second inning down 2-1, and then they opened up an offensive clinic. Junior catcher Kylie Gorsuch opened up the inning by reaching first on an error, and McDaniel would come in and hit her first home run of the season to put the Bobcats back on top.
Ohio then went on to force a walk and hit three doubles, a single and got a sacrifice fly, which all tallied up to four more runs. In total, the Bobcats got six innings and two runs to completely bust the game open and make it 7-2.
With the help of graduate pitcher Skipp Miller, Kent State would never be able to recover from that brutal second inning.
Skipp Miller held the game down on the defensive front as she pitched all five innings, while only allowing five hits and racking up four strikeouts.
Another big four run third inning for the Bobcats and two more in the fifth inning ended the game with a Bobcats mercy rule win.
Game Two:
Just a few minutes later, game two started. The second game was similar to the first, with Ohio’s dominant offense forcing another mercy rule. Unlike game one, the Bobcats' defense was just as suffocating as the offense, with junior pitcher Mikie Lieving at the helm.
Lieving pitched the first four innings of the game while only allowing three hits and just one run as she locked it down. Senior pitcher Keegan Moore then came in to close out the final inning, as she would allow just one hit to end the game quickly.
On the other hand, the offense was just as good in this game as it was before. Ohio scored a big seven runs throughout the first three innings.
Ohio entered the fifth inning up 7-1, as it was going for another five-inning win. The Bobcats’ wishes would be fulfilled as they hit three solo home runs. McDaniel and Bare both got their second home runs of the series.
This would be enough to enact the mercy rule as Ohio would sweep the doubleheader going into Saturday's game.
Game Three:
Ohio came out swinging throughout the first two innings of game three, as it looked like it was going to easily sweep the series with another five-inning game. The Bobcats tallied four hits in innings one and two, with one of them being Bare's third home run of the series to jump out to a huge 5-0 lead.
While the Bobcats' offense was on fire, Miller was throwing smoke and allowed only two hits through the first two innings.
A McDaniel triple in the third inning continued her fabulous series and made it 6-0. The Golden Flashes then seemingly flipped a switch after that moment.
Four hits, two walks and two errors for Kent State in the third inning would give it three runs and some momentum as it drew the game within three runs. This would also be enough for Ohio to pull Miller in favor of Moore.
Both teams held it down through the next inning and a half as only two runs were scored in favor of Ohio, up 8-3 entering the bottom of the sixth.
The Golden Flashes would get a walk early in the bottom of the sixth, which was followed by a two-run home run to make it 8-5.
McDaniel hit her third home run of the series in the seventh inning to get an insurance run for her team entering the bottom of the seventh inning.
Kent State got two runners on with only one out, trying desperately not to get swept. With the tying runner up to bat, Moore would retire back-to-back hitters, and the Bobcats fought off the Golden Flashes' comeback attempt and swept the series.
Ohio’s four straight conference wins tied them in second in the MAC for conference wins, with only six conference games remaining. The Bobcats are back at home this weekend for their last home game of the year against the hottest team in the MAC, the Akron Zips.
