Ohio (24-13, 7-5 Mid-American Conference) continues its road trip by heading to Oxford to face Miami (26-10, 8-4 MAC). This series is a true test for Ohio, as Miami is the second-ranked team in the MAC.
Ohio is coming off a series against Ball State, where it was able to pad its win column with two additional wins. Continuing a trend with the Bobcats, they have not been able to sweep a series opponent yet, with two wins being their most.
Ohio also continued its strategy of using a committee of pitchers for MAC series this year. Graduate student Skipp Miller pitched almost all of the first game with very slight relief from senior Keegan Moore. As for the second game, Moore and junior Mikie Lieving both pitched, and the third game was a mixture of all three. This has been an ongoing trend for Ohio, with lineups similar to these being consistent over the past two weekends.
Miami is coming off a series against Buffalo in which it won 2 games. The 2 games won had a combined score of 19-3, but Miami dropped the second game in the series, with Buffalo managing to sneak out a victory. Miami didn’t let Buffalo score in the third game and is coming off a huge fielding and pitching performance.
The last time these two squads met was in the finale of the MAC Tournament last season, when Ohio lost a crushing series after needing just one win in three games against the RedHawks. Miami went on to capture its fifth straight MAC title. After that thrilling end to the MAC season last year, fans should be in for another huge series this week.
Game Information:
Opponent: Miami
Times: Tuesday 3 p.m., Wednesday 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.
Location: Oxford, Ohio
Get to know the opponent:
Head Coach: Mandy Gardner Colegate (second season)
Statistical leaders:
Batting average: Bailey Manos (.434)
Hits: Mia Estrello (46)
Home runs: Katy Olive (13)
RBIs: Danitza Hernandez (41)
Innings Pitched: Angelina Ricciardi (64.2)
Strikeouts: Olive (21)
ERA: Presley Hosick (2.81)
Miami notes:
Miami is coming into this series with the second-highest batting average as a team in the MAC, at .326, only trailing Ohio. Both teams often have the chance to explode for multiple home runs in an inning, so an offensive shootout could be expected from multiple games. Miami also has three different players with 10 or more home runs. Olive leads the team with 13, but both Manos and Hernandez have 10, showing this team has lots of firepower on it.
Despite having a good batting percentage as a team, Miami does rank more towards the middle of the pack in terms of fielding. The RedHawks have 46 errors on the season, which is a conference-leading stat. Miami will most likely try to have this cleaned up when facing Ohio, as this could give an already strong batting team extra chances to grab bases and get runs.
