Sports
Ohio Prepares For Doubleheader With Dayton
By: Kellen Becoats
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After a convincing 3-1 win in their home opener against Wright State, the Ohio softball looks to continue its success in a doubleheader hosted by Dayton on Thursday, March 20.
Savannah Jo Dorsey was the spark for the Bobcats (14-12) on both sides of the diamond. She opened the scoring for the ‘Cats by smashing a two-run homer over the fences in the second inning to give Ohio the advantage throughout the entire game. And on the defensive side, the sophomore pitched the full game and struck out 10 batters for her 11th win of the season (11-8).
“It was good to be out on our field and have a big game like that,” Dorsey said. “It was a big win.”
The Ohio pitching staff looks to have settled after only allowing Wright State. The single run was just what Ohio needed after a discouraging run of games where the Bobcats gave up 33 runs in its last two games.
One of the Bobcats’ goals this season is to become the best team not only in the MAC but also in all of Ohio. Ohio head coach Jodi Hermaneck was very pleased with Ohio’s win over Ohio State, her only win over the Buckeyes in regular season play.
“The Ohio State win was awesome,” Hermaneck said. “You always got to love winning [against] the ‘big’ team in the state and beating somebody like that. And we got two more shots at them, so hopefully we can walk away with getting that same stamp of approval on the next two later on in the season.”
With games against Akron, Bowling Green, Kent State, Miami (OH), Toledo and two more games against Ohio State, it will be a long and challenging road for the ‘Cats to claim state dominance but Hermaneck knows her team is ready for it and knows that the Dayton games are indicators for Ohio as it goes into conference play.
“We want to come out and we want to win and we want to be the best team in the state,” Hermaneck said. “When we get ready for conference, we want to be the best team in the conference, so we’re not letting off just because these games don’t mean anything to us getting towards a championship season. We want these wins just as if we wanted every other win before us.”
But the path starts in Dayton and if the Bobcats desire to be Ohio’s No.1 team, it will have to dispatch struggling teams like the Flyers (8-12). Ohio dropped its two games against Dayton during its home opener last year but Hermaneck is confident her team won’t have a repeat of last year.
“We just need to spark hard early,” she said. “Once we start that way we need to press, we need to keep going, we need to not let anybody be comfortable on the other side of the field and I want to see that out of [the team] against Dayton because they are a good squad.”