Pitcher Kevin Mementowski said he feels his team can't catch any breaks right now.
With Ohio's starting pitchers allowing a total of two earned runs over the 22 innings that they pitched this past weekend, Mementowski said he knows that his team's three losses to Eastern Michigan could have gone the other way.
This whole weekend
we felt like we could have easily won three games and we came out with three losses he said. It's mentally aggravating to go through it time and time again like we have been lately.
Ohio's superb pitching performances began on Friday with starter Chris Rigo, who matched Eagles starter Jeff Fischer inning for inning in a complete-game pitcher's duel. The Eagles scored the only runs of the game in the third inning, knocking three consecutive hits with two outs to take a 2-0 advantage.
Chris Rigo matched Fischer
who is the pitcher of year in the league
pitch for pitch
coach Joe Carbone said. It was anybody's game
and he did a great job.
Rigo's outing was the first complete game of the season for the Bobcats, as he scattered five hits over eight innings. The right-hander was efficient, throwing a total of 95 pitches.
Mementowski continued Ohio's streak of solid starting pitching in game one of Saturday's doubleheader, a change in the schedule that occurred because of inclement weather in the forecast for Ypsilanti, Mich., for yesterday. He lasted into the ninth inning but took the 1-0 loss after the Eagles scored the winning run on an error by left fielder Jeremie Rehak. Although he battled the flu all week, Mementowski said he felt no effects on the mound and added that he benefited from the weather.
It didn't affect me that much because I spent the whole week working on getting better
Mementowski said. I used the wind to my advantage and knew that if they got the ball up
it would stay in the park.
In game two, the Eagles gained an early 4-0 advantage, scoring all four runs off Ohio errors. The Bobcats ended their 22-inning scoreless drought in the fifth and tied the game up at 4-4 in the eighth to force extra innings.
The Eagles (12-14, 9-1 Mid-American Conference) secured the three-game sweep in the 11th when shortstop Jeff Hehr scored to make it 5-4.Ohio first baseman Marc Krauss paced the Bobcat offense in the final game with three hits. He attributed his team's struggles at the plate to the Eagles' pitching staff.
They are probably some of the best pitchers that we have faced
Krauss said. It's so frustrating because we had chances to win a lot of these games
and we find ways to lose them.
Carbone said that Ohio (12-20, 2-10 MAC) was at a disadvantage in the doubleheader because it limited the availability of leadoff hitter Matt Stiffler, who was held out of the second game because of a bad knee.
The thing that hurt us negatively was that Stiffler could not play because of the cold weather
