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ATHENS, Ohio — The Ohio baseball team fell 4-3 in its series finale against VMI (23-14, 4-5 SoCon) on Sunday afternoon. Ohio outhit its opponent seven to six in the loss.
"It seems like we do two out of three (phases) pretty good every game. This is that one thing that's lacking and is causing us to to to not get over the hump, so we'll continue to talk and work about that," head coach Craig Moore said.
Ohio (9-25, 4-11 Mid-American Conferece) got off to an early start on a double by Trae Cassidy (Northville, Mich.) which put a run on the board in the first inning. That lone run proved its importance as Ohio and VMI entered a pitching duel, and traded three-straight scoreless innings.
Freshman starting pitcher Hunter Winston (Hinkley, Ohio) tossed four and two-thirds innings for the Bobcats. He exited the game after he allowed two runs on three hits and four walks. Winston also struck out five batters.
VMI tacked on two runs off of back-to-back RBI walks in the top of the fifth inning to take the lead from Ohio. However, Ohio tied the game in the next half frame on an RBI walk of its own by graduate student Blake Reed (Gahanna, Ohio).
The Keydets collected two more RBI off of a single in the top of the sixth to claim a two-run lead that was later cut to down to one on a solo home run by redshirt senior Nick Dolan (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
Sophomore relief pitcher Ethan Stewart (Meigs, Ohio) and freshman reliever Luke Bryant (Ashland, Ohio) produced back-to-back clean innings in the seventh and eighth to hold VMI at the plate. Stewart collected two strikeouts while Luke Bryant grabbed one.
"Ethan Stewart has earned what he's getting. He's earned it," Moore said. "All we're asking him to do is go one inning, three outs, and he's been doing that."
Despite late attempts to score, the Bobcats were unable to overtake the Keydets lead.
"That's baseball. There's no equation or science to it. It's just getting on base and their pitcher neutralized us a little bit. It's a Sunday game. It's game three, both lineups have played a lot of innings throughout the weekend, and everybody's a little tired. But that's not an excuse, we had opportunities to do something," Moore said.
Redshirt sophomore Cam Bryant (Miamisburg, Ohio) led Ohio at the plate with two hits in four at-bats. Cam Bryant had Ohio's second double of the day.
Ohio will be back in action on Tuesday to face Dayton on the road. First pitch is set for 3 p.m.
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