Sports
Rott’s Two Home Runs not Enough Ohio
By: Mary Ryznar
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After facing an 8-2 upset in the first game on Friday (April 14), Ohio baseball suffered another defeat falling 12-9 in the second game of the weekend series against Eastern Michgan.
Ohio was nearly unable to score on Friday but the Bobcats showed up at the plate Saturday.
The Bobcats put two runs on the board in the first inning. Senior left fielder Spencer Ibarra opened the game by smashing a homer for Ohio’s first run. Senior second baseman Ty Black put Ohio up 2-0 after he doubled to right center and scored on a RBI single from redshirt junior designated hitter Michael Klein.
However, the Eagles were not shy to add runs of their own in the second half tying the game 2-2 at the end of the first inning then adding three more in the second.
Ohio showed the beginning of a comeback with two runs in the third. Ibarra singled to center field, moved to second on a groundout from junior catcher Nick Bredeson and then advanced to third on a wild pitch. Another double from Black sent Ibarra home. After Klein grounded out sending Black to third, a single RBI from sophomore first baseman Rudy Rott sent him home.
Ohio continued their comeback attempt in the fifth inning. Klein singled to the left side followed by a homerun from Rott to put the Bobcats in the lead 6-5.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, EMU began to fight back. Redshirt junior pitcher Tom Colletti gave up three hits and three earned runs . Colletti took the loss on the mound to drop his record to 2-2. Cory Blessing relieved Colletti and went 2.1 innings until he was relieved by Matt Mikolajczak, who finished the game.
The Eagles scored four runs on six hits in the eighth to seal the EMU victory.
The Bobcats scored three more runs in the ninth after Rudy Rott nailed his second homerun of the game to score both Black and Bredeson.
Ohio will look to conclude this weekend with a win on Sunday in the series finale at 1 p.m.