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ATHENS, Ohio — The Ohio baseball team earned a series win on Sunday afternoon (April 28) after it defeated Toledo 5-3.
The Bobcats found themselves with an early lead after freshman Caleb Karll (Fitchburg, Wis.) hit a sacrifice fly to score junior Jackson Cauthron (Murfeesboro, Tenn.). Sunday marked the first time in the three-game series that the Rockets did not score first.
"Anytime you can get the lead early, you put a little bit of pressure on on the opposition and you hope that they feel like they need to start to press a little bit. The first two games of the series, they were able to jump on us in the first inning. It was good to see," head coach Craig Moore said. "If we had maybe two or three more big hits, we probably would have beat them a little bit more than what we did right there.
Starter Blake Gaskey (Davenport, Iowa) held off Toledo with ease. He dealt four strikeouts through the first three innings to keep Toledo at bay. However, Toledo figured out Gaskey's scheme in the top of the fourth, when Owen Jackson hit a solo home run.
Ohio recovered in the bottom of the inning and scored two runs on a single by Karll and a double-play ground ball by graduate student Trenton Neuer (Nicholasville, Ky.).
The insurance helped Gaskey continue to perform on the mound. He went on to strike out five more batters before exiting the game in the top of the eighth. Gasket threw 100 pitches on the afternoon, a little over half of which were strikes, for his second win of the season.
"I feel like what the first half of the season I was struggling a little bit. The changeup wasn't working very well. The past couple weeks, I've been able to find the change up, and I feel like throwing the changeup for strikes allows me to be able to throw the slider and the fastball a lot less to be able to keep off balance and do what I got to do," Gaskey said.
Toledo tore through Ohio's defense in the eighth and ninth innings to collect two more runs, but Ohio wasn't ready to give up yet. It brought in senior Luke Olson (Granville, Ill.) to work out of a jam in the top of the ninth. Olson threw five pitches to earn a strikeout and to seal the victory. His save marked his third of the week, too.
Cauthron led Ohio at the plate with two hits, alongside fifth year Alex Finney (Oxford, Mich.) and redshirt junior AJ Rausch (Powell, Ohio) who each had two as well. Karll and senior Gideon Antle (Licking, Mo.) led the team in RBIs with two a piece. Antle's two RBIs came on a home run in the bottom of the seventh.
The win marked Ohio's third Mid-American Conference series win of the season.
"It's been awesome, especially with the warm weather this weekend to have to get back from Bowling Green where it was chilly and windy. We're playing playoff baseball, because at the end of the day, that's what this is for us. We're just excited and it's ready to keep rolling," Cauthron said.
Ohio will be back in action on Saturday (May 4) for the first game of a three-game series against Virginia Tech. First pitch of the double header is scheduled for 1 p.m. with game two to follow.
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