ATHENS, OH – The Ohio baseball team (3-17, 1-4 MAC) dropped the second game of a weekend series against conference foe Western Michigan (8-9, 4-1 MAC) by a final score of 6-3.
"Our situational defense was outstanding today," Ohio coach
Andrew See said. "...That really helped us out and kept the game in check. That was one of the better games we've played overall as a team this year. I thought we executed very well on the pitching side and also defensively."
Ohio scored three runs on five hits while committing one error. Western Michigan tallied six runs on 10 hits with no errors.
Senior outfielder
Cam Hill (Chicago, Ill.) once again led the Bobcats on offense, tallying a homer in the eighth as part of a two-hit day. Senior utility man
Cale Steinbaugh
(Georgetown, Ill.) and redshirt sophomore outfielder Max Palinksi (Gates Mills, Ohio) contributed Ohio's other two RBI's.
Sophomore lefthander
Hunter Winston (Hinckley, Ohio) got his first start of the season Saturday afternoon, going four solid innings, allowing just two earned runs. Freshman lefty
Gaige Stuckey (Washington Court House, Ohio) did the majority of the work out of the bullpen for the Bobcats, pitching two innings, allowing one earned on two hits. Four other Ohio pitchers got the ball on the mound Saturday.
Similar to Friday night, Western Michigan opened the scoring on Saturday with a run in the first.
The Bobcats were unable to respond in the bottom half of the first inning but scratched across two runs in the second to take a 2-1 lead over Western Michigan. Two walks and a single to start the second inning led to two runs for Ohio, the second coming from an RBI single by Steinbaugh.
The Broncos didn't see a deficit for long; they tied the game with a run in the third before scoring again in the fourth and fifth to make it 5-2 headed into the sixth.
After Western Michigan added onto its lead again in the eighth, Ohio got back in the scoring column with a homer from Hill, his second of the weekend.
Ohio's pitching held Western Michigan to no runs in the top half of the ninth, but its offense wasn't able to close the gap in the bottom.
Up next, Ohio will finish its series with Western Michigan tomorrow, Sunday, March 15, at 1 p.m. That game can be seen on ESPN+.
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