Sports
Bobcats, Cougars Split Doubleheader Saturday
By: Nick Ursini
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The Bobcats (4-3) rebounded from their loss on Friday with a 6-4 win in game one of their doubleheader, but fell 7-4 in game two against SIU Edwardsville on Saturday.
The Cougars struck first with two runs in the bottom of the first. Both runs came with two outs.
Butch Baird got the start for Ohio. After allowing two runs early, Baird barred down and held the Cougars’ bats in check.
Baird pitched five innings, allowing three runs before being relieved by Tom Colletti in the sixth.
The Bobcats cut SIUE’s lead in half during the top of the fourth inning.
First baseman, Rudy Rott started off the inning with a single. Michael Klein laid down a sac-bunt to advance Rott to second, bringing up shortstop Tyler Finkler. Finkler laced a single into left field to score Rott.
The Cougars regained their two-run lead in the fifth inning and tacked on another in the sixth, pushing their lead to 4-1.
Ohio came back with three runs in the seventh inning to deadlock the game at four.
Nick Bredeson led off with a single. Bredeson advanced to second on Connor Callery’s sac-bunt. Spencer Ibarra singled right back up the middle, scoring Bredeson. Ty Black continued the rally with a single.
With two runners on and one out, Rott drew a walk to load the bases for Klein. Klein smacked a single to center-field, scoring Ibarra. Finkler lined out, but Evan Bourn drew a huge two-out walk to tie the game at four.
Colletti shut down the Cougars in the seventh before handing the ball over to Jake Roehn in the eight.
Tied at four, Ohio scored two runs in the ninth to take game one.
Rott led off with a walk, Klein roped a one-hop double off the wall, setting up the Bobcats with runners on second and third with no outs.
Rott broke the tie after a wild pitch and Bourn singled in-between the shortstop and third basemen to push across Klein.
Roehn returned to the mound and struck out the side to close out game two.
However, the ‘Cats bats cooled off in the second game as SIUE took down Ohio thanks to a big fourth inning for the Cougars.
Starting pitcher Cory Blessing made quick work of the Cougars early. Blessing struck out four of the first six batters he faced to start the game. Blessing continued to stifle the Cougar bats after working out of a jam in the third.
Yet, Ohio could not help Blessing offensively. The ‘Cats could not muster up hits when needed and when they did, they could not get the big hit to cross the plate.
Blessing ran into trouble in the fourth. SIUE had runners on first and second after a lead off walk, followed up by a single. Ohio used three different pitchers to work out of the fourth. Blessing was chased out of the game, Matt Mikolajczak relived him, but could not finish the inning and Logan Jacik came in to record the final out. But not before the Cougars crossed the plate five times.
A trio of singles from Black, Finkler and Bourn gave Ohio their first run of the game.
The Cougars came back with one more run in the seventh.
Ohio made one last effort in the eight inning to try and regain the lead. Black singled to start off the inning, followed by a Rott double. Finkler hit a sacrifice-fly to score Black. Gus Cunningham drew a two-out walk to score run number three for Ohio.
Devon Garcia knocked in a run with a single, but that was all Ohio could do as the Bobcats left the bases loaded.
SIUE increases their record to 4-3 on the year and will look to win the series on Sunday in their fourth game of the weekend.
First pitch is set for 11 a.m.