Sports

The current leaders of the Mid-American Conference East Division, the Ohio Bobcats (15-12), host the West Division leaders, the Central Michigan Chippewas (14-14), for a three-game series this weekend at Bob Wren Stadium.

The last two remaining unbeaten schools in the MAC come into this weekend with current four-game winning streaks.

The Bobcats swept the Ball State Cardinals last weekend to open MAC play undefeated for the first time since 1997. Their mid-week contest came against in-state rival Dayton on Tuesday.

Ohio scored the final four runs after falling behind 2-1 in the top of the fifth inning to win 5-2.

The Bobcats used a total of seven pitchers to only allow three Dayton hits.

Spencer Ibarra continues to lead Ohio in the batter’s box. Ibarra is hitting .320 with a team-leading 33 hits and 15 RBIs.

Ohio coach Rob Smith says his usual weekend starters of Gerry Salisbury, Butch Baird and Michael Klein will be on the mound for Ohio.

As for Central Michigan, the Chippewas swept Miami (OH) last weekend to open MAC play. Their mid-week game was a 9-7 win over Oakland.

Out of conference, Central Michigan played UCF, Michigan, Northwestern and Michigan State, making it tough to judge the team by its record.

“I think their pitching stats are a little deceiving just from the the standpoint that they played some really good teams early and had big numbers put on them,” Smith said.

Daniel Robinson is the leading hitter for the Chippewas. Robinson is hitting .331 with 41 hits and 23 RBIs. Alex Borglin is right behind Robinson, batting .328 with 38 hits and 19 RBIs.

“Statistically as an offense they’re going to be very action based,” Smith said. “They’re going to steal bases, bunt, hit-and-run. They have not shown a lot of power numbers, so they’re going to try and create a lot of things which is going to put pressure on us to handle the ball.”

On the mound, Tyler Hankins, Dazon Cole and Pat Leatherman have started the majority of the games for Central Michigan. Hankins has a 3.43 ERA, Cole has a 4.23 ERA and Leatherman has a 5.59 ERA.

The Bobcats and Chippewas are scheduled to play a doubleheader on Saturday with the first pitch at 1 p.m. with the second game staring approximately 30 minutes after the final out.

The final game is scheduled for 1 p.m. first pitch on Sunday.