Sports
Ohio Backs Up Hermanek’s Praise With Two Wins
By: Kaleb Carter, Kellen Becoats
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Game One: The Bobcats put on an offensive clinic Friday afternoon as they neglected to score only two innings on the way to a 14-4 demolition of Eastern Michigan to open Mid-American Conference play.
Ohio (16-13, 1-0) posted 17 hits, its highest mark of the season, in Ann Arbor, Mich. and saw some of its biggest hitters—Alexandria Basquez, Madison Claytor, Amanda Dalton, Adrienne Gebele, Casie Hutchinson and recently-returned Chelsea Hortman—all record runs on the opening day of MAC play.
Claytor's single to left field put the Bobcats ahead 2-0 at the top of the first and it seemed like Ohio had all the momentum from that point forward. The ‘Cats followed up by posting two three-run innings and a two-run inning that saw the Eagles’ (8-18, 0-1) hopes of their first conference victory fade away.
However, as they often have this season, the Bobcats gave up a few runs late to remind Jodi Hermanek’s women that they still had to close out the game. A single to right and a double to center in the bottom of the fifth plated three EMU runs before Savannah Jo Dorsey caught Lauren Wells swinging to end the inning at 7-3.
Ohio responded swiftly with three runs in the next inning and a three-run homer by Claytor and a Basquez single plating another run to cement its first MAC win of the season. Hortman came up big for the ‘Cats by recording three RBIs in three at bats and a perfect 1.000 slugging percentage in her second game of the season.
Another standout for the team was Dorsey (12-9), who snagged 13 strikeouts while only giving up eight hits and four runs in all seven innings.
Game Two: After a 14-run explosion in game one of the doubleheader, the Ohio Bobcats carried their momentum with their bats into the first inning of the next game. Ohio scored seven runs in the top of the first alone on the way to a 12-4 win over Eastern Michigan.
Alexandria Basquez started off the scoring with an RBI single. Adrienne Gebele and Madison Claytor played add-on with a single and a sacrifice fly respectively to put Ohio on top 3-0.
Savannah Jo Dorsey started the game as the designated player and slugged two homers, including a three-run dinger to put Ohio up 6-0, while the ‘Cats still had only made one out.
Alyssa Wolfe singled in Sloan Walker to round up the scoring in the first before Eagles pitcher Lindsay Rich retired two consecutive batters to get out of the inning.
Rich settled down, and only gave up another run over her next 4 2/3 innings of work.
Ohio was able to tack on four more runs against EMU’s Alyssa Huntley in the sixth inning to give itself a comfortable lead.
Dorsey hit her second home run of the game in that inning, a two-run shot that gave her five RBIs on the day.
Amanda Dalton led Ohio at the plate with four hits on the day, and Casie Hutchinson added three. Dalton increased her season average to .326 with the 4-for-4 performance. Basquez, Dorsey and Sloan Walker all added two hits each as the Bobcats only struck out once on the day as Ohio collected 16 hits.
Lauren McClary picked up the win in a complete game effort. She moved to 4-4 on the season by allowing four earned runs and seven hits, while striking out six batters.
Ohio banged out 33 hits in the two games on the afternoon and outscored EMU by a score of 26-8.
The ‘Cats have now built a three-game winning streak and have started MAC play 2-0.