Sports
Bowling Green stuns Ohio with a late rally to spoil Gaskey’s gem in MAC opener
By: Marc Goldstein
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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) — Sometimes, all it takes to wake a sleeping giant is a new face in the game. In its MAC opener, Ohio (3-9, 0-1 MAC) saw its two-run lead disappear and turn into a two-run deficit in the blink of an eye late against Bowling Green (7-5, 1-0 MAC). Ohio was unable to recover from the rally by Bowling Green, ultimately losing, 6-4.
On a blustery day in Athens, the offense was limited. Blake Gaskey got another Friday night nod for Ohio and started the game on a sour note, albeit a familiar one. Last weekend, he struggled with surrendering too many home runs, eventually underwhelming his statistical performance despite a rather positive outing. In the first, Gaskey gave up a two-run blast to Bowling Green catcher Garrett Wright, his first of the campaign.
The task for the Bobcats would be tall, though. Although the Bobcats boast a very explosive offense, both the weather and opponent would prove to be a viable suppression system. DJ Newman, Preseason All-American, is as stout as they get in the MAC. In the second, Jackson Cauthron would use the conditions to his advantage, skying a ball right into the jetstream and riding it out beyond the right-field wall. Cauthron had sliced the lead in half with his solo home run, but the Bobcats would find no success otherwise.
The two aces would shut down the offenses in the frigid weather. Gaskey and Newman traded zeroes for the next couple of innings.
It wasn’t until the fifth when Ohio got something going offensively. Back-to-back singles from Trenton Neuer and Nick Dolan as well as a walk from JR Nelson knocked Newman from the game. With a fresh arm on the mound, Matt Ineich slapped a knock past the diving third baseman down the left field line that scored two, giving Ohio its first lead of the game, 3-2.
Gaskey would continue to shut down the Falcons. In the seventh, he would give up a leadoff double to Chase Chopin. The next batter would send a routine flyball to center where Pauly Mancino made the catch and launched a bullet over to Dolan at third to get the double play. Gaskey would finish that inning and his outing shortly thereafter. He ended the day going seven innings, giving up just the two-run homer and striking out six batters.
“Gaskey threw an outstanding game,” Ohio head coach Craig Moore said. “He gave us a great start. That’s what we ask him to do on Friday nights. He settled down and was in cruise control for six innings after the first.”
In the bottom of the seventh, Ohio would tack on another insurance run on a single from Mancino. He drove in Nelson to put Ohio on top, 4-2.
Moore would turn the game over to the bullpen where the Bobcats appeared to be well positioned to allow its two best relievers, Dylan Eggl and Tyler Peck, to finish the game. Eggl was the first to get the call and would have a runner at second with two outs. From there, the wheels completely fell off. He gave up RBI singles to Gavin Ganun and Sam Seidel and RBI doubles to Cooper McKenzie and Alex Laird. By the time the inning was over, Ohio’s two-run lead had flipped into a two-run deficit.
Despite the poor results, Moore still thinks that Eggl got the short end of the stick in regards to some of the results.
“They barrelled up maybe two of those five hits in that inning,” Moore said. “Balls weren’t hit hard and they found holes. That’s the game of baseball.”
Regardless, Ohio would put two on with nobody out in the bottom half of the frame. Bowling Green would insert Connor Penrod, its ace reliever in that spot and he would respond by retiring the next three batters to neutralize the threat. In the bottom of the ninth, Penrod was just as dominant. He closed out the win for Bowling Green with a 1-2-3 frame to seal the 6-4 victory.
The loss for Ohio stings on many levels. The first and most obvious one is that it relinquished an opportunity to get a conference win when it might need one later in the season. The other is that there were many missed opportunities during the game for Ohio to emerge for more offense. The team went a paltry 2/11 with runners in scoring position, a figure Moore knows cannot last.
“We had opportunities to score more,” Moore said. “We had a couple of situations with first and second, nobody out in the fourth and eighth and didn’t score. If we execute there, maybe we get another two or three runs. That’s the difference in the game.”
Ohio’s inability to score when its pitching staff is mowing down the opposition is a scary thought. Gaskey gave as much as anyone could have asked of him on Friday night and was still unable to get the win. Moore remains optimistic that things will turn around, and there is no time like the present to start adding to the win column before it gets too late.
“I’ve told them several times that we’re not here for moral victories,” Moore said. “We’ve got to learn from the situations where we’re not making a play, not executing a pitch that is leading to us not being able to finish games and that’s something that we’ll continue to preach.”