Now that the Ohio baseball team has been officially eliminated from postseason contention, they now aim to save face as they play host to conference rival Bowling Green in their last series of the season.
After dropping two of three games in a pivotal series at Miami, Ohio (19-25, 11-13 Mid-American Conference) welcomes Bowling Green (26-24, 11-13) for a three-game series with little more than pride and third place in the MAC’s East Division on the line.
Both teams have been eliminated from the postseason MAC Tournament. Ohio’s last conference tournament appearance came in 2003.
Despite being ineligible for postseason play, coach Joe Carbone said his troops will be ready to play hard.
“The game is played the same way,” Carbone said. “Because we can’t individually get to the tournament doesn’t mean we don’t go out there and do it any differently than we normally do.”
Ohio’s series with Bowling Green marks the final collegiate games for three senior pitchers; Anthony Gressick (4-1), Yale Silverman (3-3) and Derek Witt (6-4).
The three have carried the brunt of the Bobcat pitching load this season, tossing an accumulated 194 innings for just over 50 percent of all innings pitched by Ohio players.
“I would say Silverman, Gressick, and Witt went out and performed the way seniors are supposed to perform and did it very well,” Carbone said.
As a hitter Gressick also contributed greatly to an offense that averaged six and a half runs per game. Heading into tonight’s game Gressick is posting a .361 batting average, .435 on-base percentage, and 38 RBIs, numbers that all trail only junior Willie Walker for team lead.
Gressick leads the team with five home runs on the season.
Although disappointed about missing the MAC Tournament the players will look to end their collegiate careers on high marks against Bowling Green.
“They’ll be missed deeply because those are the guys that ran out there and got it done for us when we needed to get it done,” Carbone said.
Ohio plays host to Bowling Green in the first of a three-game, season-ending series at 6 p.m. today at Bob Wren Stadium.
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