April 17, 2010
Final Stats
DEKALB, Ill.-The Ohio baseball team posted seven-run innings twice Saturday as the visiting Bobcats trounced Northern Illinois 20-9 at Ralph McKinzie Field.
The win, which was the team’s first road win of the season, improved Ohio’s record to 9-23 overall and 5-6 in the Mid-American Conference, while the Huskies dropped to 12-21 overall and 5-6 in the league.
Ohio got four RBIs from third baseman Bryan Barnes, first baseman Jerod Yakubik and center fielder Adam Gecewich, while left fielder Robert Maddox III had another huge day with a 5-5 effort, to go with three RBIs and a team-high four runs scored. Barnes also had three hits as eight of nine Ohio starters were able to secure a base knock during the contest.
Center fielder Jordin Hood drove in three runs to lead NIU, while shortstop Alex Jones and catcher Brian Riegler added three hits. Jones and designated hitter Alex Etcheverry scored twice.
Ohio reliever Rex Ingham (2-0) had another solid outing to get the win, allowing four runs on 10 hits with five strikeouts and no walks in five and one-third innings.
NIU starter Jeremy Gonzales (2-2) took the loss. He was tagged for eight runs on five hits with no strikeouts and three walks in three innings of work.
The Huskies got two runs in the first against Ohio starter Jason Moulton, but the Bobcats came back with a run in the top of the second on a solo homer down the left field line by Maddox. The blast was his eighth of the season for the left-handed slugger, which is also a team-high.
NIU got a run in the bottom of the second, but Ohio roared back with seven in the third. Yakubik scored the first two when he lifted a bases-loaded, two-run double to left center (scoring second baseman Zach Keen and right fielder Matt Keller) and designated hitter Seth Streich soon followed, scoring Barnes on an RBI groundout. Gecewich came up next and tattooed the first pitch he saw for a three-run homer down the left field line for his fifth round-tripper of the 2010 campaign. Catcher Kris McDonough continued Ohio’s first-pitch aggression when he sent his first offering out to left center for his sixth blast of the season.
The Huskies got another run in the bottom of the third, but Ohio got two more in the top of the fourth when Maddox’s bases-loaded, two-run single found its way through the right side, scoring shortstop Wesley O’Neill and Keen.
The Huskies countered with single tallies in the fifth and sixth frames, but Ohio posted another seven spot in its half of the sixth inning. Yakubik launched another two-run double to left center and Voshell scored him on a single to right. Gecewich followed with a run-scoring single through the left side and pinch hitter Kory Burkhart’s full-count, bases-loaded walk forced home the next run. Barnes then rapped a bases-loaded, two-run single through the right side for the last two scores of the inning.
Voshell knocked in Maddox in the seventh with an RBI groundout, after Maddox slugged his first triple of the season.
NIU plated three runs in the seventh, while Barnes’ two-run shot to right in the eighth, his sixth of the season, provided the game’s final margin.
Ohio left just five men on base, while the Bobcat pitching staff stranded 11 Huskies.
The two teams will play the rubber game of the series Sunday at 2 p.m.
