Sports
Ohio Downs Miami in Back-and-Forth Contest
By: Nick Ursini
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Deadlocked at five in the seventh inning, pinch-hitter Nick Bredeson smoked a two-out, three-run double to left field to help the Bobcats beat Miami 9-5 in the first of their three-game series.
Miami drew first blood with a run in the top of the first inning.
Spencer Ibarra evened the score with a leadoff solo shot to right field, his team-high 10th of the year. Ibarra has homered in each of the last four games and five of the last six.
Ohio grabbed the lead in the second when Evan Bourn belted his first homer of the year.
The RedHawks tied the game at two on a Tyler Harris hit his sixth home run of the season but Ohio took a 3-2 lead in the bottom half of the third. Rott sent a one-out single through the right side advanced to third on a Miami fielding error and scored one out later on a base hit to right by Giannini.
Miami evened the score again in the top of the fourth.
Bourn put Ohio in front again in the fourth, this time with a leadoff home run to right. Tyler Finkler followed with a double to left, then scored on a double to left center by Ibarra.
The RedHawks answered back by tying it at five-all in the fifth, though. The Bobcats continued their recent power surge with three home runs.
Ohio has gone deep 17 times over the past six games and has five multi-homer games during the span.
“We’re really starting to swing the bat really, really well,” said head coach Rob Smith. “We’ve said from the beginning that we like our pitching and our defense and if we could get our offense going, they would make a difference. Our offense has been outstanding.”
Bourn led Ohio at the plate, going 3-for-4. The Bobcats had nine players get a hit while five of them had multi-hit games.
Tony Giannini extended his team-best hitting streak to 10 games, and he and Black have both reached base safely in a team-high 13 straight games. Bredeson has reached base in each of his last 11 games while Rott has done so in each of the last 10.
Rudnicki picked up the victory on the mound for the Bobcats, improving to 1-3 on the season. He struck out one while giving up three hits and two walks. Redshirt junior southpaw starting pitcher Gerry Salisbury struck out two in 4.2 frames of work.
Salisbury allowed five earned runs on seven hits and four walks.
Cory Blessing struck out three in 1.1 innings of relief. He allowed one hit and one walk.
The Bobcats and Redhawks return to action tonight for a 6 p.m. first pitch for game two.