Sports
St. Bonaventure Completes Sweep Of Ohio
By: Eric Singer
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It was not a great weekend for Ohio coach Rob Smith and his Bobcat baseball team.
What looked like a weekend for the Bobcats to build some momentum against a struggling St. Bonaventure team quickly turned into a weekend the Bobcats were happy to see end, as the Bonnies swept the three-game series over Ohio after winning the series finale by a score of 14-3.
Just like in game one of the Saturday doubleheader, the game started off well for the Bobcats – tied 1-1 through four innings, as Ohio starting pitcher Connor Sitz settled in on the mound.
But in the fifth inning, the Bonnies tagged Sitz for three runs on four consecutive hits, chasing Sitz after the inning was over. Sitz pitched well for Ohio overall, giving up four runs on eight hits over five innings, however he was credited for the loss to fall to 0-4 this season.
From that point on, the Bonnies once again feasted on Ohio’s bullpen, as they scored a run in each of the next four innings. The bullpen struggled to keep the deficit minimal, allowing 10 runs and nine hits in four innings of work, split between five different pitchers.
The Bonnies’ offense, which had totaled just 22 runs over its nine games of the year, doubled that total in the series with Ohio, erupting for 44 runs and 50 hits off of the Ohio pitching staff, with 24 of those runs coming in the first game of the Saturday doubleheader. Meanwhile the Bonnies’ pitching staff kept the Ohio bats in check for the series, allowing 13 runs on 26 hits to the Bobcats.
The large deficits the Bobcats faced on Saturday allowed for Smith and the coaching staff to play and evaluate some of their younger players who had not seen the field much this season, and to also re-evaluate the team as a whole.
“These situations you learn a lot about your team,” Smith said. “You learn about who’s ready to play, and maybe who’s not quite ready to play, and who needs more work. We’ll assess that tomorrow and move on from there.”
Perhaps the most frustrating part of the game for Smith was the numerous mental breakdowns and defensive lapses on Saturday, as he watched his team commit a combined nine errors in the two games.
“Some of the errors today were very routine,” Smith said. “And I just think it was unfortunate that it happened. We just hope we never see something like that again, ever because it was certainly disappointing and downright embarrassing in some respects.”