The Ohio softball team powered its way over Akron, picking up its second conference series sweep of the season with two wins over the Zips this weekend.
The Bobcats were fueled by six doubles and two home runs to beat Akron 6-2 Saturday and 5-3 yesterday.
It's pretty important for us
pitcher Emily Wethington said. We haven't been able to put a sweep together since the first time that we played. In order to compete with other teams we are going to have to start sweeping series.
The Bobcats were shut-out by Kent State in their last Mid-American Conference series when they weren't able to generate any offense. That was not the case with Akron.
On Saturday, the Bobcats' offense looked super-charged in the fourth inning when Deanna Hartsough, Maureen McKelvey, Wethington and Amanda Sacks combined for four straight doubles.
After Alicia Catlette struck out for the first out of the inning, Jordan Paden drove in Sacks on the fifth double of the inning.
That's something we've been struggling with all year Sacks said. We've had runners on
but we haven't been able to move them around very efficiently. It's something we've been focusing on the past couple weeks.
The fourth inning proved to be special for Ohio in both games this weekend.
Yesterday, following a walk by McKelvey, Wethington launched a shot over the left field wall that bounced off the top of the field house to give the Bobcats a 2-0 lead.
The power trip continued in the fifth, when Hartsough blasted the second home run of the game, this time with two on, giving the Bobcats a 5-1 lead.
Sacks said that the Bobcats have been trying to win every inning of every game, and with the exception of the seventh inning in game two, in which the Bobcats didn't bat, they accomplished their goal.
Twice in the series, the Bobcats (18-15, 5-5 MAC) came out in the bottom of the inning and responded after Akron (13-29, 2-8 MAC) scored in the top of the inning.
That's really important for us
Sacks said. I know sometimes we get down when we get scored on
but that's another thing we've been working on too
is keeping our energy up the whole game.
Michelle Sauter took over the circle in the fourth inning of Saturday's game with Ohio leading 1-0. She gave up two runs on three hits and Ohio trailed heading into the bottom of the inning when the Bobcats re-established the lead for good.
That was huge
Sauter said. They scored those two runs and I was like
'That sucks.' I was really happy with how we responded because G? we've been having trouble moving runners and it was really nice to see our girls hit the ball.
Coach Jill Matyuch declined to comment after each of the Bobcats' victories.
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