Sports
Ohio Softball: Yun, McCrady Power ‘Cats Past Bowling Green in Home Opener
By: Taylor Jedrzejek
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ATHENS, OH — The Bobcats first home game of the season was about what would be expected from Athens weather in late March. Temperatures in the mid-40s and wind gusts of over 20 mph.
But not even a strong crosswind could cool off Katie Yun.
The sophomore shortstop hit two more home runs Friday afternoon, bringing her total to 5 in the last two games alone. Yun’s hitting plus the stellar pitching of Madi McCrady powered the Bobcats (19-10, 1-0 MAC) to a 7-2 win over Bowling Green (10-14, 0-1 MAC).
“I haven’t hit this many home runs back-to-back before,” Yun said. “It feels really good.”
Yun has gone 9-for-18 at the plate in the Bobcats’ last four games, hitting seven home runs and racking up nine RBIs. This hot stretch has brought her season batting average to .409 and her slugging percentage up to .773, both team highs.
“When somebody is seeing the ball like she’s seeing it, you don’t say much to her,” Bobcats head coach Kenzie Roark said. “She’s going up (to the plate) with a great mindset, she knows what pitch she wants to hunt and she’s really good at executing her own plan.”
The Bobcat offense was more than just a one-woman show on Friday. Morgan Geno plated two runs in the game to bring her season RBI total to 40, far-and-away a team high and Allie Englant went 2-for-4 and drove in a run.
Ohio also turned in a clean game in the field. No errors were given up by the Bobcats on a day where the Falcons gave up three.
“Defense is something that we work very hard on and take a lot of pride in,” Roark said. “For us, we tell them we want them to make every routine play and every play that will end up on ESPN, too. Save runs, steal outs. That’s our defensive motto.”
Of course, it’s sometimes easy to play good defense behind a pitcher that shuts down the other team for much of the game. McCrady picked up her 11th win (11-6, 3.42 ERA) of the season, pitching a complete game and striking out nine Falcons while only giving up two runs on five hits.
“All we keep saying as pitchers is go out there and attack the zone,” McCrady said. “You’re strike is more dangerous than your ball that’s off the plate.”
McCrady pounded the zone all day and it showed in the box score with 78 of her 124 pitches being called strikes and eight of her nine punch outs coming with Bowling Green batters going down swinging.
The Bobcats will continue their series with the Falcons on Saturday with a doubleheader at OSF with the first game set to start at 1 p.m.