Sports
Ohio Splits with BGSU
By: Kellen Becoats
Posted on:
Game One
Ohio struck first and never really let up the pressure Friday, as it took the first game of a doubleheader at Bowling Green, 7-2.
Junior Sloan Walker was excellent on the day and made the game-changing play to swing the momentum firmly in the Bobcats (13-23, 5-5 Mid-American Conference) favor in the fifth inning.
First, Walker began the inning with a leadoff single to left center. Then she waited, saw her chance and stole second.
Seeing another opportunity, she then stole third and when the throw no one was there to catch it, so Walker made her way to home plate for an unearned run to give Ohio a 4-2 lead.
The Falcons (14-21, 5-7 MAC) never really recovered after that.
Despite having the bases loaded in the ensuing at bat in the bottom of the fifth, BGSU couldn’t get past newly introduced pitcher Lauren McClary and the Ohio defense.
The Bobcats put an emphatic ending on the game when they scored three runs in the top of the seventh to put the game away. This succession of runs was capitalized by Amanda Dalton plowing through the pitcher to score the fifth run.
But it was the Falcons who would plow through Ohio in the second game.
Game Two
It took BGSU awhile to get started on Friday, but when it got hot there was no looking back and it took the second game of the doubleheader, 7-3, over the Bobcats.
Two bad innings really sunk Ohio’s chances of winning this game.
It was a scoreless tie until the bottom of the fourth, when the Falcons’ Amanda Durham hit a two-run homer to left field. From that point on BGSU would never lose the lead again.
In fact, it went on to score four more runs in the next inning and it was looking like the Bobcats might get shut out for the first time this conference season. But Ohio made a small comeback in the top of the sixth, as senior Raven King drove a three-run homer to center field.
That hit gave Ohio a fair amount of confidence going into the top of the seventh, but two strikeouts and a out at second ended that confidence and saw the teams split the games.
The Bobcats’ next games are a doubleheader at Toledo on Saturday at 1 and 3 p.m.