April 19, 2008
Box Score
AKRON, Ohio - The Ohio baseball team failed to score a run for the first time this season Saturday afternoon, as pitcher Zach Yike threw a complete-game shutout to lead Akron to a 6-0 victory at Lee Jackson Field. Ohio drops to 18-18 overall and 8-6 in the Mid-American Conference, while Akron improves to 17-14 and 3-5 in the MAC.
Yike totaled five strikeouts and only one walk and held the Bobcats to just five hits in the game, their second lowest output of the season. The sophomore left-hander faced only four batters over the minimum.
"We've got to give Zach Yike credit, he had a great game today," said Ohio Head Coach Joe Carbone. "He kept us off balance all day and threw his change up and his breaking ball for strikes at will."
The game began as a pitchers dual, as junior left-hander Zach Elmer (Delaware, Ohio) and senior right-hander Matt Smith (Centre Hall, Pa.) combined to hold Akron to just one run on five hits through the first six innings.
Elmer got the start for Ohio, going 4.0 innings, allowing just four hits and one earned run while striking out three. Smith came on in relief of Elmer in the bottom of the fifth, and gave up just three hits and no runs in his first two innings on the hill, before the Akron hitters were finally able to get to him in the seventh. Akron blew the game open in the inning, scoring five runs on five hits, led by a three-RBI double by Vince Chiera, to give Yike a comfortable 6-0 lead with two innings to play.
Elmer took the loss to fall to 3-2 on the season and Yike improves to 3-1 on the year.
Freshman Robert Maddox III (Euclid, Ohio) was the only Bobcat to post a multi-hit game, going 2-for-3, extending his hitting streak to 11 games. Maddox III has recorded at least two hits in each of the last six games. The only other Ohio players to collect a hit in the game were senior Matt Stiffler (Bellbrook, Ohio), junior Hayden Johnston (Strattenville, Pa.) and senior Zach Hartle (Toledo, Ohio), who each had one hit.
Despite dropping the first two games of the series to Akron, the Bobcats are still atop the MAC East Division standings, in front of Bowling Green (6-5 MAC) and Kent State (6-5 MAC).
The Bobcats and Zips conclude their series on Sunday, with first pitch slated for 1 p.m.
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Wes Liles is the baseball contact in the Ohio media relations office. He can be reached via email at liles@ohio.edu.
