Sports
Ohio Baseball Wins First Extra Innings Game of Season
By: Mary Ryznar
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Ohio Baseball is now sitting at 5-3 record after finishing 2-2 in their four game series against Southern Illinois-Edwardsville this past weekend in Emerson, Ga. After losing their game on Friday and dropping the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader, the Bobcats came back in Sunday’s game with a 2-1 victory in 13 innings.
It was at the top of the thirteenth inning that sophomore Rudy Rott led the Bobcats off at bat with a double. After a sacrifice bunt by senior Michael Klein, Mateus Vakuda, who entered the game as a pinch runner, advanced to third. Junior Evan Bourn then hit a sacrifice fly that sent Vakuda home to score the second and final run for Ohio. Taking the field for the bottom of the 13th, the Cougars had one on and one out until a fielded pop out made it two outs for SIUE. A groundout to freshman Gus Cunningham closed the game..
The Bobcats opened the game at the plate by scoring a run after senior Spencer Ibarra doubled which was followed by an RBI single from Rudy Rott. Klein was on the mound when Ohio took the field as he swept through the Cougar batting line up in a matter of minutes.
Throughout the second and third innings, both the Bobcats and the Cougars were persistent in playing as the innings went quickly and although there were hits, many batters were left on base. It was not until the fourth inning that SIUE scored the run that tied up the game and later sent the game into extra innings.
Some key players for Ohio included the four pitchers of the game; redshirt junior starting pitcher Michael Klein, senior Jake Rudnicki, redshirt junior Jake Roehn, and senior lefty Matt Mikolajczak. Klein struck out nine in five innings and Rudnicki struck out seven in four. None of the 12 batters Rudnicki faced reached base. Roehn pitched three innings to get the win and Mikolajczak got the save.
At the plate, Rott went 2-for-5 with a double and an RBI and redshirt junior catcher Nick Bredeson had a double and a single. Senior Tyler Finkler and junior Tony Giannini each finished with two hits.
Ohio will wrap up their stay in Emerson when they take on Alabama State (2-6) on Tuesday, Feb. 28 with a 1 p.m. game.