Sports
Ohio Falls As Cougars Score Six In The Eighth Inning
By: Eric Singer
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On Friday night, the Ohio Bobcats faced a red-hot Georgia Southern squad and shut down the Eagles on their way to a key early-season victory.
On Saturday, the Bobcats hoped to turn the momentum into consecutive wins that would bump their record to a modest 4-4 overall. They faced a struggling Southern Illinois-Edwardsville Cougars squad, who was 1-6 coming into the game and the Bobcats were feeling confident.
But, there is a reason that games aren’t played on paper.
The Cougars turned what was a pitching dual into a rout on their part, scoring six runs in their half of the eighth inning to defeat the Bobcats by a score of 7-3, which was the Eagles’ second-highest run total of the season.
Ohio (3-5) jumped on the Cougars right from the start, as Scott White led off the game with his fourth double of the season. Two batters later, Jake Madsen ripped a double into right field, scoring White from second base and giving Ohio the 1-0 advantage.
Four innings later, the Cougars (2-6) tied it up as Keaton Wright smacked an RBI-single back up the middle of the infield off of Ohio’s Jake Miller, tying the game at 1-1.
The game would remain tied until the top of the eighth. That’s when the Cougars offense exploded for six runs on seven hits in the inning, feasting off the pitches that Ohio’s Logan Cozart, Brad Przebieda, and Spencer Sapp were offering up. Cozart took the biggest blow from the Cougars offense, giving up four of the six runs in the inning, while getting credited with the loss on the mound.
Ohio added two runs in the bottom of the ninth, as both White and Mitch Longo came up with RBI singles for the Bobcats, giving Longo nine RBI’s on the season which is tops on the team so far.
The Bobcats return to the field on Sunday afternoon for round two with Georgia Southern, with freshman pitcher Gerry Salisbury making his first career start for Ohio. First pitch is set for 5 p.m.