After dropping the opening two games of the series, Sunday’s game against Akron was a must-win if the Bobcats want to stay in contention for a Mid-American Conference Tournament berth.
Through a grinding, complete-game performance by freshman starting pitcher Connor Sitz, the Bobcats (8-26, 4-8 Mid-American Conference) won the final game of the series 4-2.
“I can’t say enough about what Connor Sitz did for us,” coach Rob Smith said. “We talked about it yesterday, that we were going to have to get him deep into the game. We needed an extraordinary effort out of him and he gave that today.
Sitz (1-5) pitched the first complete game of the season for the Bobcats in an efficient, 102-pitch performance. The freshman allowed seven hits with no walks and one strikeout to salvage the end of the series.
“I was just trying to do my job,” Sitz said. “Just get the ball over the plate, put it in play and give my guys a chance, and they did a great job today. The defense really helped me out and won the game for us.”
And with the win, he recorded the first victory of his collegiate career.
“I didn’t expect (the win) to come like this and didn’t really know when it was going to come,” Sitz said. “I started doubting it a little bit throughout the year, but I can’t describe this feeling. It’s awesome. It feels kind of good to get this off of my chest.”
The Bobcats struck first in the bottom half of the second, when consecutive singles by left fielder Tyler Wells and Dan Schmidt, who stole second, put runners on second and third with no outs.
Right fielder Scott White hit a sharp ground out to second to score Wells, but the Bobcats couldn’t muster any more runs in the frame.
Three innings later, Ohio did what Akron had done for a good deal of the weekend by capitalizing on the opposition’s mistakes.
After opening the inning with singles from second baseman Nate Squires and third baseman Ben Otto, the pair advanced to second and third on a balk by Akron pitcher Matt LaRocca. Center fielder Nick Squires hit a single up the middle to score both runners.
Squires built off a 2-4 day Saturday by knocking in his 17th run of the season in a 1-5 performance and gladly took advantage of the pitching mistake by the Zips (8-25, 5-7 MAC) on Sunday.
“They took advantage of our errors the first two games and really capitalized on those situations,” Squires said. “Today, when they made some mistakes, we took advantage and that helped us come out with the (win).”
ch203310@ohiou.edu
