Ohio Wins a Game, But Toledo Takes The Series

A win for the Ohio Bobcats has been a scare commodity in conference play, but the team did pick up a victory over the weekend as Toledo took two of three from the 'Cats at home.

Easter weekend did not help Ohio fare much better than usual, but Ohio's victory was its second of conference play, and second in its last 23 games. The Bobcats have not scored more than four runs in a game since a game with Ohio State on April 1st in which they scored six runs in a loss.

Toledo took game one by a score of 3-0 on Friday. Senior righty Ryan Wilkinson threw seven innings of shutout ball on the way to his fourth victory this season. Deion Tansel and Jordan Kesson both poked two hits and had an RBI each. Jake Roehn had a relatively solid start on the mound for Ohio, going eight innings while allowing five hits and three runs (just one earned).

On Saturday, Ohio was able to pull out a 3-2 victory over the Rockets. Freshman hurler Jake Rudnicki, a Toledo native, started on the mound for the 'Cats and went 8 2/3 innings of two-run baseball. It was a no-decision for Rudnicki, but ultimately a great performance at his home town college. Jake Madsen drove in Mitch Longo in the top of the 10th with an RBI double, which turned out to be the winning run for the Bobcats. Madsen gathered three hits in five at-bats on top of his game-winning hits. Jacob North went 3 for 4 with an RBI to lead the Rockets offensively on Sunday.

Toledo found itself on top once again on Sunday with a 7-4 win. The Rockets moved to 15-22 (7-8 in the MAC) with the victory, a day in which the bats finally woke up for Toledo. Jake Miller started on the mound for Ohio and fell to 0-5 with the loss. Ryan Callahan and John Martillotta had homers in the victory. Callahan led the Rocket offense with a two-hit game and four RBI's. Madsen had a second consecutive three hit/ five at-bat game and contributed an RBI. Kyle Slack picked up the win on the mound for Toledo, going six innings while allowing two runs (one earned).

Mitch Longo has been on somewhat of an extended schnide as of late, and has seen has average drop sharply as of late. For much of the season, Longo has hovered above .400, and now finds himself hitting .346. Even while going through some difficulties that might have been expected of a starting freshman outfielder in the first place, he managed to score the winning run in Saturday's 3-2 Ohio win.

Ohio's record now stands at 6-30, and the 'Cats sits in a tie with Eastern Michigan for last in the MAC with a 2-13 conference mark.