The Eastern Michigan baseball team lost both doubleheader games to Ohio on Sunday, April 21 at Oestrike Stadium, by score of 8-2 in the first game and 6-3 in the second game. Saturday’s game was rained out and pushed to the following day on Easter to finish the series between the MAC opponents. Ohio won Friday’s game 6-1 over Eastern.
The three games against the Bobcats were EMU’s first conference series in 2019 where it did not score 10 or more runs. The Eagles hit .237 for the weekend, compared to Ohio hitting .327. EMU was coming off two non-conference losses to Dayton and Michigan State.
Scott Granzotto started on the mound for Friday’s game. He pitched four innings and allowed five runs, three of which came in the first inning. The lone run for EMU was scored in the sixth inning on a sacrifice fly from Drake Peggs to bring in Zachary Owings. The Eagles had the bases loaded with no outs to start the inning, but Ohio made force outs at third base and home plate to limit the damage.
Eddie Kutt was the winning pitcher for the Bobcats with eight innings pitched and six strikeouts. Rudy Rott went 3-5 from the plate, and Nathan Malott drove in two runs off two hits. Early rain on Saturday set up two games on the Easter holiday, and both teams played doubleheaders in their previous series against MAC opponents.
The first game started with the Bobcats again scoring in the first inning. Ohio’s Michael Richardson hit a single to drive in Aaron Levy. EMU tied the score in the following inning with a single by Taylor Hopkins that scored Peggs from second base. A four-run fifth inning propelled Ohio to a 5-1 lead, with another RBI single by Richardson and a two-RBI single later by Cole Revels. Richardson finished with three hits.
In the bottom half of the fifth, Owings doubled to right field which brought Jeff Timko across home plate. In the eighth, Ohio’s Trevor Hafner hit a deep ball to right center field for a triple that scored Richardson and Rott. Jack Liberatore was the winning pitcher for Ohio, while EMU’s Holden Cook had his fifth loss on the season.
Nearly half an hour later, the second game got underway. Ohio once again scored in the opening inning as it was a two-run homer by Levy, his third of the season. The long balls later kept coming for the Bobcats. The Eagles’ John Rensel Jr. had an RBI off a sacrifice bunt that brought in Hopkins in the sixth inning. Hopkins had a hit and drove in two runners for the day.
Sebastian Fabik hit a two-run shot for Ohio in the seventh inning, and Rott put one over the wall in the eighth to make the score 5-2. Tanner Piechnick added the fourth home run of the game for Ohio in the ninth, making it the team’s most in one game thus far in 2019.
Kenny Ogg pitched the complete game and put up his second win on the season for Ohio. EMU’s Justin Meis started the game and pitched 6.1 innings and had six strikeouts. The sweep puts the Eagles in a five game losing skid, next facing Toledo in a weekend series at home starting Friday, April 26. Ohio will travel to play against Youngstown State on Tuesday.
