Ohio Heads to Florida to Open Spring Break Trip at THE Spring Games

3/6/2020 12:00:00 AM | Softball

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ATHENS, Ohio – The Ohio softball team (8-12) begins their nine-day spring break trip this weekend when it travels to Madeira Beach, Fla. March 7- 8 to compete in THE Spring Games. While there, the Bobcats will take on St. Bonaventure and Iowa on Saturday, South Dakota State and Merrimack on Sunday. The tournament is set to take place at the Madeira Beach R.O.C. Softball Complex.

SCOUTING ST. BONAVENTURE
Last year St. Bonaventure finished with a 9-36 record, going 5-17 in the Atlantic 10. The team concluded the 2019 season with a .240 batting average, .332 slugging percentage, and 14 homeruns. This season, the Bonnies are 2-3, defeating Western Michigan.

Leading the Bonnies through five games this year is McKenna Holtz who is batting .308 with four hits. Grace Perechinsky adds a .250 average with three hits and one double.

In the circle for St. Bonaventure is Rylee Hehir who is 1-2 with a 4.55 ERA and Ally Haskell with a 7.64 EAR in two games.

SCOUTING IOWA
Iowa is currently 14-4 for the 2020 season as they head into THE Spring Games. At the 2020 Hawai'i Invitational, the Hawkeyes swept the tournament, going 5-0 before falling to Miami (Ohio) at THE Spring Games, where Iowa went 2-2.

Freshman Nia Carter leads Iowa, batting an average .524 in 42 at bats. Carter has made an appearance in 17 games, starting 15 of them and has had eight runs, two doubles, one triple and nine RBIs. Freshman Kalena Burns has three homeruns, five doubles, batting in 14 runs.

Returning to the mound for the Hawkeyes is senior Allison Doocy. Doocy has a 1.56 ERA on the season, registering 95 strikeouts in 58.1 innings. Sophomore Lauren Shaw is also returning for Iowa. This season, Shaw has a 2.03 ERA, with 54 strikeouts in 58.2 innings. Both pitchers have started nine games and appeared in 11. Doocy has won six games, while Shaw has won seven for the Hawkeyes.

SCOUTING SOUTH DAKOTA STATE
South Dakota State will enter the matchup with Ohio with a record of 8-6, winning four of five games in the last tournament they competed in, the 2020 Razorback Invitational. The Jackrabbits are hitting .278, totaling 20 doubles, three triples, 11 homeruns, and 56 RBIs. Last season, South Dakota State finished 37-19.

Leading the Jackrabbits in hitting is freshman Cylie Halvorson with a .412 batting average. In 34 at bats, Halvorson has six runs, four doubles, one homerun, and 6 RBIs. Sophomores Peyton Daugherty and Kelsey Lenox follow, both with seven runs. Lenox has registered five homeruns this season.

In the circle for the SDSU is freshman pitcher Grace Glanzer. Glanzer has appeared in nine games, starting eight of them. In her 54 innings of play, she has accumulated 42 strikeouts and a 2.33 ERA. Glanzer has recorded eight wins for the Jackrabbits this season.

SCOUTING MERRIMACK
Merrimack enters the tournament with a 0-6 record. Last season the Warriors were 25-23, securing themselves the #1 seed heading into the NE10 championship. Unfortunately, Merrimack was defeated by New Haven in the quarterfinal game, ending their 2019 season.

Junior Lucy Colarusso leads the Warriors with a .412 batting average. In 17 at bats, Colarusso has had seven hits, one doubles, and two RBI's. Fellow Junior Abigail Amato follows with a .375 average, six hits, two runs, and three doubles.

LAST WEEK AT COURTYARD MARRIOTT BAREFOOT LANDING INVITATIONAL
The Bobcats finished up their weekend at the Courtyard Marriott Barefoot Landing Invitational 3-2 overall. The Ohio softball team (8-12) started off the weekend strong by securing a win over Maryland Eastern Shore in their first game of the tournament. Ohio got an early led, scoring two in the first inning and adding three more in the second. MESU scored their only run of the game in the top of the third, while a leadoff home run by Yun increased the lead over the Hawks 6-1. The Bobcats registered three more runs and a homerun from Rice give Ohio the 10-1 lead needed to conclude the game after five innings. The second game of the day was scoreless until the bottom of the second when Coastal Carolina scored their first. Ohio responded in the top of the third, scoring two of their own to take the lead, but CCU fought back and registered three runs. After a scoreless fifth inning, the Chanticleers scored four runs in the bottom of the fifth, putting them up 8-2. Ohio scored one in the top of the sixth but ultimately were unable to rally back, falling to Coastal Carolina 8-3.

The Bobcats split day two of the tournament as well, with the first matchup of the day being against Monmouth. The game was scoreless until Monmouth scored two in the top of the third to take the lead. After no runs were scored in the fourth or fifth innings, Ohio cut the lead 2-1 in the bottom of the sixth. Despite their efforts, the Bobcats were unable to take the lead, concluding the game with a score of 2-1. In Ohio's second game, the Bobcats faced the Chanticleers for the second time. Ohio got an early lead after scoring two runs in the top of the first, only to be countered by Coastal Carolina who put up four of their own. Determined, Molly Troutman hit a home run to tie the game but the Bobcats weren't finished. Ohio scored four more runs to lead over the Chanticleers 8-4. Despite Coastal Carolina's effort, they were only scored one run in the bottom of the second. The Bobcats struck again in the top of the third, scoring their first of five runs of the inning off a walk. Yun hit a grand slam to bring herself and three others home. Neither team was able to score again, allowing Ohio to defeat Coastal Carolina, 13-5.

Ohio claimed their final game of the invitational, defeating USC Upstate. After a scoreless first two innings, Ohio scored two runs. With two outs, Katie Yun hit another home run before the inning came to a close. USC Upstate scored a run in the bottom of the fifth but were not able to recover, falling to Ohio 3-1.

SCOUTING OHIO
The Bobcats are 8-12 overall after competing in the Marriott Barefoot Landing Invitational.

Offensively, the Bobcats are hitting .296 as a team, scoring a total of 94 runs with 165 hits, 29 doubles, and nine homeruns. They've also registered 85 RBI and have a team slugging percentage of .425. The Bobcats also have a .369 on base percentage, while drawing 60 walks.

Leading the way in hitting is junior Allie Englant (Long Beach, Calif.) who is hitting .446 with 29 hits, two doubles, 19 runs scored and three RBIs. Junior Katie Yun (North Canton, Ohio) follows, hitting .403 with 29 hits, seven doubles, five homeruns, 16 runs scored and 22 RBI. She also has an .708 slugging percentage.

2019 BOBCAT REWIND
Ohio finished the 2019 season 34-21, 12-8 in-conference, just shy of winning back-to-back Mid-American Conference titles after falling to Toledo (29-26) in the final round. Thanks to a grand slam in the seventh inning that increased the lead to 7-2, Ohio was able to defeat the top-seeded Miami (35-14), giving the Bobcats another shot at claiming the regular season crown. Despite a 5-0 lead in the first game against Toledo, Ohio was unable to recover from three errors late in the first game and five errors in game two.

Overall, the team finished with a collective on-base percentage of .365, a .462 slugging percentage and a .295 batting average. The Bobcats scored 299 runs, had 269 RBIs, hit 64 doubles and 68 homeruns, stole 52 bases and had 4 shutouts.

RETURNERS
This season, the returners for Ohio consist of five sophomores, five juniors, and one senior. Last season, senior outfielder Alexa Holland (Rochester, Ind.) had a fielding percentage of .958, with 37 outputs and nine assists. Holland finished the 2019 season with the highest batting average of her career, .266. With 29 hits in 109 at bats, she scored 18 runs, hit one triple and registered six RBI. Last Season, Holland was named to the Academic All-MAC team for the second time.

Junior Katie Yun (North Canton, Ohio) also returns for the Bobcats. Last season, Yun was batting a team high of .394 with a .711 slugging percentage, 14 homeruns and 18 doubles. Registering 78 hits, Yun set the single season hits record. Yun earned First Team All-MAC, 2019 Google Cloud Academic All-District Team, and All-Mideast Region First Team.

In the circle, junior Madi McCrady (Brimfield, Ohio) is back in the Green and White after posting a 23-13 record and a 3.20 ERA in 229.1 innings pitched, while striking out 207. McCrady also earned a spot on the Academic All-MAC squad.

Other returners include sophomores Caroline Spacek, Justice Ruggles and Mackensie Kohl as well as juniors Allie Englant and Brooke Rice.

NEW TO THE SQUAD
Ohio is welcoming 10 newcomers to the team, seven freshmen and three transfers.

Incoming freshmen for this season include, Alexis Dawe, Kaci Branch, Sydney Larson, Molly Troutman, Ryan Shaughnessy, Sophia Bernard and Holly Brehm.

The Bobcats also added three transfers to the roster for the 2020 season, including junior Ava Heidorn (Marysville, Ohio) who comes to Ohio after spending two seasons at UL-Monroe. Ohio also sees redshirt sophomore pitcher Baylie Thornhill (Baton Rouge, La.) come to Ohio from LSU, and sophomore infielder Caitlin Fogue (Columbia, Mo.) puts on the Green and White after one season at Missouri.

PRESEASON POLL
Ohio softball team has been selected fourth in the 2020 MAC Softball Preseason Poll, the league announced today (Feb. 5). The poll was voted on by the head coaches of the 11 MAC institutions.

The Bobcats earned 86 votes, but did not receive a first-place vote. Finishing ahead of Ohio is Miami who was selected as this year's favorite with 113 votes and four first place votes, followed by Kent State with 112 votes and four first place votes. Ball State finished with 90 votes and two first place votes.

Selected behind Ohio is Toledo (68) with one first place vote, Central Michigan (66), Northern Illinois (65), Western Michigan (48), Bowling Green (32), Akron (25) and Buffalo (21).

Miami and Kent State both were selected to take home the 2020 MAC Tournament crown, earning five votes each. Ball State also received one vote to win the tournament.

COMING UP
Up next, the Bobcats head to Clearwater, Fla. on March 10 to compete against Providence and Cleveland State. Then Ohio will head to Tampa to participate in the USF Tournament March 13-15.

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