Sports
Bobcats Take Weekend Series Over EMU
By: Kellen Becoats
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The Eastern Michigan pitcher must have been dreading it when senior Raven King came to the plate in the fifth inning.
The last time King had been at the plate, she had smashed a three-run homer over the Ohio Softball Field scoreboard to put the Bobcats ahead 3-2.
The pitcher chose her pitch, threw it and watched the ball sail over the right field wall as King hit her second three-run homer of the day and put Ohio ahead for good, as the Bobcats went on to win 7-2.
“We just need that one person to step up and do that for us,” King said of her performance. “When we get those little sparks, it ignites everybody and that’s what gets us going.”
Her play certainly inspired her teammates and the Ohio (11-20, 4-2 in MAC) fans, as each of her two big hits brought screams from both parties.
Aside from King, the only other Ohio run was scored on a solid bunt by senior Kaylin Clarke that brought junior Amanda Dalton home.
Dalton had a great game as well, getting a hit in each of her at bats and encouraging her teammates to keep going when they were down early in the game.
The deficit that the Bobcats faced early was mainly due to a pair of errors early on, but Ohio was able to fight back and get themselves into the game; something that Ohio coach Jodi Hermanek has prompted her team to do many times this season.
“Today I thought we had a slow approach,” Hermanek said. “We needed to be better and I challeneged them in the middle of the game and I made some defensive switches, as well as some pitching switches, and I thought they answered really well.”
The win gave Ohio the series sweep over the Eagles (9-21, 1-4 in MAC) and made it 4-2 at home after dropping its first two games to Central Michigan on Friday.
Despite the poor start to the weekend — where the Bobcats were outscored 22-4 in Friday’s doubleheader — Hermanek believed that her team reacted well and did well to sweep EMU.
“Yeah they didn’t want to piss me off three days in a row,” she said with a laugh. “We came out and just did not play, were not happy about our performance, our mentality.
“But this squad has been resilient … they do a good job of trying to make that adjustment and be a better team the next day and I was really proud of them for doing that yesterday after Friday’s outcomes.”
Ohio faces a conference-winless Buffalo team on Friday, and the Bobcats will need to keep that mentality when they play conference heavyweight Kent State on Saturday and Sunday.