PITTSBURGH - The Ohio baseball squad passed its first road test in 15 days with flying colors as Dusty Hammond (Bellefontaine, Ohio) paced an explosive offense with a career high five hits as the Bobcats rolled to a 20-3 non-conference victory over Duquesne Wednesday afternoon.

Hammond?s 5-for-7 performance at the plate led a 22-hit Bobcat attack that saw all nine Ohio (17-14) starters record at least one hit and seven finish with multiple-hit games. The sophomore second baseman finished three-quarters of the way toward hitting for the cycle as he lacked only a home run from the feat.

?Dusty swung the bat very well today. He?s getting his stroke flattened out and is getting a lot more line drives and ground balls,? said Ohio Head Coach Joe Carbone.

Leading 3-0 heading into the fourth frame, the Bobcats sent 15 runners to the plate and scored nine times to blow the game wide open. Meanwhile, the Ohio pitching staff held Duquesne (12-19) in check thanks to starter Zeke Isaacs' (West Carrollton, Ohio) one-hit effort over 5 1/3 innings.

?Zeke had his most impressive outing at Ohio University,? Carbone said. ?Coach (Bill) Toadvine has worked with him on tightening up his pitching motion and I thought that helped him throw strikes with his fastball and he was around the plate with his breaking ball.?

The Bobcats captured an early lead on a triple by Hammond to bring home Bryan Buck (Hudson, Ohio) and a single by Brian Colopy (Columbus, Ohio) to plate Hammond in the first inning and Anthony Gressick's (Lancaster, Ohio) sacrifice fly in the third pushed Ohio out in front 3-0 before the fourth inning onslaught.

Gressick?s second homer of the season highlighted the nine-run explosion that also included a three-run triple from Colopy and two hits from Hammond. The Bobcats also took advantage of four Duquesne walks in the frame.

Four more runs came around in the fifth for Ohio as Crabtree led off with his team-leading eighth homer of the year. Phil Sabatini (Oakmont, Pa.) then doubled to bring home Gressick, who followed Crabtree with a single. An RBI hit by Bryant Witt (Powell, Ohio) and a sacrifice fly from Buck extended the Ohio advantage to 16-0.

The Dukes finally broke through on the scoreboard with a three-spot in the seventh off of Ohio reliever Cody Neyman (Dravosburg, Pa.). All three runs came with two outs, but it was too little, too late for the home team.

Making his first collegiate start, Jason Selhorst (Ottawa, Ohio) drove home Willie Walker (Marysville, Ohio) in the sixth inning and Hammond doubled to bring home two runs in the eight to extend the Bobcats lead to 19-3.

Walker capped off the day with a home run in the ninth inning to close out the scoring at 20-3.

The three home runs by Gressick, Crabtree, and Walker were at team season high.

?Everybody was up there swinging the bats and being aggressive,? Carbone said. ?If your swinging ? good things can happen.?

While the Bobcat bats were rattling, the pitching corps of Isaacs (1-1), Neyman, Brent DeCoster (Westlake, Ohio), and Daniel Weiss (Cincinnati, Ohio) limited the Dukes to just three hits. DeCoster and Weiss each threw a hitless inning.

Keith Meyer (0-2) took the loss for Duquesne after yielding 10 runs on nine hits in 3 1/3 innings of work.

Ohio improves to 8-1 in midweek games this season and 4-2 against Duquesne under Carbone. They have now come out victorious in 14 of their last 16 games.

The Bobcats will rejoin league action this weekend when they travel to Buffalo for a three-game set. Ohio and the Bulls are set to tangle at 3 p.m., on Friday and first pitch is set for 1 p.m., Saturday and Sunday.