Ohio Baseball Splits Doubleheader with Toledo

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ATHENS, Ohio-– The Ohio baseball team (13-14, 7-9 MAC) split a doubleheader against Toledo (15-16, 9-10 MAC) on Sunday afternoon (April 10) at Bob Wren Stadium. The Bobcats lost the first seven-inning game, 11-5, and won the second game, 10-3.

GAME ONE
The Bobcats were the first to strike in game one as senior Will Sturek (Minnetonka, Minn) hit a sacrifice fly to right field to bring in redshirt senior Spencer Harbert (Middletown, Del.) in the bottom of the second inning. Toledo tied the game up after scoring an unearned run against redshirt sophomore pitcher Jacob Tate (Louisville, Tenn.) in the third inning. The Rockets added a few more runs with a big fifth inning and gained a 6-1 lead.

Ohio kept fighting back as the scored four runs in the bottom of the fifth inning. After a walk and a single, redshirt freshman AJ Rausch (Powell, Ohio) tripled down the right field line to score two runs and bring the deficit to three. The Bobcats scored again as senior Colin Kasperbauer (Sioux City, Iowa) singled to bring in Rausch from third base, and senior Mason Minzey doubled to bring in Kasperbauer and shrink Toledo’s lead to a run.

Unfortunately, the Bobcats couldn’t stop Toledo’s offense as they scored three more runs in the sixth and two in the seventh to extend the lead out of Ohio’s reach.

GAME TWO
After the break, the Bobcats came out hot in game two as Rausch took advantage of an error by the pitcher and Kasperbauer brought him in with a single in the first inning. Ohio kept adding to the lead in the third inning after two walks brought up Minzey, who doubled to score another run. Sturek then cleared the bases to add two more runs with a single and give Ohio a 4-0 run.

The Bobcats scored again in the sixth inning as redshirt senior Michael Richardson (Cambridge, Md.) singled to get on base, and redshirt junior Xavier Haendiges (Salem, Ind.) hit a single to bring him in.

Ohio built the lead behind a stellar pitching performance from senior Brenden Roder (Sioux City, Iowa), who pitched six shutout innings before giving up two runs in the seventh. Toledo finally got on the board in the seventh after loading the bases with one out, but Roder was able to get out of the jam with just two runs allowed, one unearned. The senior pitcher finished with seven innings pitched with just one earned run on five hits and two strikeouts.

“The umpire had a big strike zone and I was utilizing that, on all parts of the plate,” Roder said. “I was able to get early outs and that was really effective today.”

Ohio kept pouring onto the lead, though, as Toledo made a pitching change before the seventh inning. Minzey started off the inning with a walk, as was moved over to third base by a wild pitch and a single from Harbert. Sturek came up next and doubled to bring in Minzey for his third RBI of the game.

“Will [Sturek] has been working hard and he’s been getting a lot of at bats in pinch hitting situations,” head coach Craig Moore said. “After last night, he earned the right to get in the lineup for these two games today and he had a really good day swinging the bat.”

Richardson brought in two more runs with a single and forced the Rockets to bring in another new pitcher after giving Ohio an 8-2 lead. The Bobcats kept scoring and plated two unearned runs to stretch their lead to eight runs. A sacrifice fly in the top of the ninth drove in Toledo’s third run, putting the final score at 10-3.

UP NEXT
Ohio will travel to Huntington, W.V. to take on Marshall on Tuesday.