ATHENS, Ohio – The Ohio baseball team (6-22, 3-9 MAC) hosted Kent State (21-7, 10-3 MAC) in the first of a three-game weekend series Thursday night. The Golden Flashes took the first game of the series, 11-4.
Ohio tallied five runs on seven hits with one error, while Kent State had 11 runs on 12 hits and five errors.
"I thought our guys showed up ready to play today, and it starts on the mound," Ohio coach
Andrew See said. "(Mason) Gass gave us some momentum. We had some really good at-bats against some good arms today. I don't want to take that away from our guys."
Graduate student infielder
Colton Shirley (Anderson, Ind.) led the Bobcats at the plate with two hits, including an RBI double. Junior outfielder
Taylor Harris (Parrish, Fla.) went one for four, including a home run, Ohio's only homer of the day. Junior catcher
Tyler Stack (Oswego, Ill.) was also effective in the Ohio lineup, tallying two hits, an RBI and two stolen bases.
Freshman right-hander
Mason Gass (Oakdale, Pa.) made his first career start Thursday night for the Bobcats. Gass went five innings, allowing six hits and four earned runs while striking out three. Senior
Aaron Blum (Cincinnati, Ohio) threw two hitless innings for the Bobcats out of the bullpen while striking out one.
The Golden Flashes got on the board first, scoring a run in the first inning after a one-out triple later came around to score. Kent State threatened again in the second inning, but Gass retired back-to-back batters with a runner in scoring position to keep the deficit at 1-0.
The Ohio offense put runners in scoring position in the second, third and fourth innings, but couldn't come up with a big hit to score any runs.
Kent State added on again in the fifth with a single run, but the Bobcats responded in the home half of the inning. With two outs and no one on, Harris launched a ball over the left field wall for a home run to cut the deficit to 4-1.
Facing what became a 6-1 deficit in the seventh, the Bobcats chipped away at the Golden Flashes' lead with a two-run inning. Stack got things started with an RBI single, scoring junior outfielder
Cameron Boyd (Villa Hills, Ky.), who reached earlier in the inning on an error. Stack would steal second and third to put himself in scoring position for an RBI double from Shirley to make it 6-3 going into the eighth.
Blum held the Golden Flashes to no runs again in the eighth to get the Bobcats back to the plate. With two outs, back-to-back runners reached before senior infielder
Cale Steinbaugh (Georgetown, Ill) scored on a throwing error by the catcher.
Headed into the game's final inning, Ohio trailed Kent State 6-4.
The Golden Flashes piled on against the Ohio bullpen in the top of the ninth, scoring five and extending their lead to 11-4.
A bases-loaded walk by senior infielder
Dylan Shepherd (Barrie, Ontario) would score a run for Ohio in the ninth but it wasn't enough to cut the deficit as Ohio fell 11-5 against Kent State.
The Bobcats will be back at Bob Wren tomorrow (April 3) to continue their three-game series with Kent State. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. ET and can be seen on ESPN+.
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