Third time's a charm
Third consecutive slugfest finally produces win for Bobcats
By Zach Swartz, Staff Writer
April 16, 2008 | 6 p.m.
Although it was the third time over the weekend series that the Bobcats scored in double digits, Sunday’s game marked Ohio’s first victory against the Eagles. After a nearly three-hour rain delay in the first game of the series, the Eagles and Bobcats took an 11-11 tie into the 11th inning when Eastern Michigan’s Todd Graves brought in three runs with a pinch-hit home run. After the Bobcat bullpen gave up another run via sacrifice fly, the Bobcat hitters, despite scoring twice in the bottom of the 11th, were unable to come out with a victory and fell 15-13.
Saturday featured a disturbingly similar game for the ‘Cats, as a 12-9 Bobcat lead with two outs in the top of the ninth was erased by yet another Eastern Michigan three-run homer. After giving up an RBI-double in the top of the tenth, Ohio failed to score in the bottom frame, giving the Eagles a 13-12 victory.
In the third game, however, after yet another rain delay that lasted a little over an hour, the Bobcat bats were finally rewarded with a win. Although senior outfielder Matt Stiffler’s school-record 26-game hit streak came to an end after earning a walk and being hit by a pitch, sophomore slugger Marc Krauss, who was 1-4 on the day with three RBIs and a pair of runs scored, was able to pick up where Stiffler left off. Krauss’s fourth home run of the season in the bottom of the sixth extended his own 15-game hit streak, and freshman infielder Zach Keen got his first career home run with a three-run shot in the bottom of the first to give the Bobcats a 7-1 lead and knock the Eagles’ Kevin Sikora out of the game after just a third of an inning.
“I thought it was a sac fly, but the wind today was going out pretty crazy,” Keen said of the first long ball of his collegiate career. “I was looking up, and it went over the fence. I was floating on the bases. It was pretty exciting."
Freshman Robert Maddox III, who is second on the team in home runs (6) and RBIs (30) behind Stiffler, also added a solo home run in the third, his second in two days.
Kevin Mementowski (1-3, 6.75 ERA) picked up the win for the Bobcats after coming into the game in the third inning when starter Jason Moulton (2-2, 4.53 ERA) was pulled because of pain in his right elbow. Mementowski’s one earned run and six hits through five and two-thirds innings earned him his first win of the season and held the Bobcats’ opponent to fewer than ten runs for the first time in the past four games.
“[Mementowski] was huge for us,” coach Joe Carbone said. “He came up bigger than anybody all week. He came back and gave us a real shot in the arm. He came out, threw strikes and gave us a chance to win. He kept us out of the big inning.”
That big inning is something the Bobcats have been unable to avoid over the previous three games, a span over which the ‘Cats had played 31 innings, given up 45 hits and 41 runs and committed eight errors.
“Those [big innings] are just demoralizing because as a team you come in and put up some runs, and they come back to score five in one inning,” Krauss said. “But today we stopped them. They only had one, and then [Mementowski] did a great job of battling and keeping them down while we stayed hitting.”
Coach Carbone said that he told his players before Sunday’s game not to be distraught to lose the weekend series because what counts is the season as a whole. The advice was true enough, as his team was able to remain within a game and a half of the East Division-leading Bowling Green Falcons (15-13, 6-3 MAC) with the win.
“We’ve lost four in a row, so [winning] is always a plus going into a new week,” Krauss said. “Like coach says, it’s big going into next weekend [because] we only lost one game in the standings with the win. So it was a big win for us, both in the standings and mentally.”
The Bobcats take the field next against Pittsburgh on Tuesday, April 15 at Bob Wren Stadium. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m.
Ohio-Eastern Michigan series by the numbers:
Runs: 75
Hits: 85
Errors: 15
Stolen Bases: 4
Passed Balls/Wild Pitches: 13
Walks: 36
Home Runs: 12
Rain Delay Minutes: 231
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