This image will endure in the minds of the 1,389 people who watched Ohio beat Bowling Green 4-1 Saturday in the first game at Bob Wren Stadium. Ohio lost the second game 3-1, and both games were rained out Sunday. But this is what people will remember.

Ohio trails 1-0 in the sixth. Brady Mangini stands on first after leading off the inning with a single to center. Jason Arbinger is on deck. Bart Leahy, with 23 career home runs already on his resume, stands at the plate.

Tim Reed/The Post
Ohio's Scott Malinowski slides safely into home in Ohio's 3-1 game two loss to Bowling Green Saturday at new Bob Wren Stadium.

"Before the game, we were saying 'Who's going to get the first home run," Leahy said.

But he isn't thinking home run at all. No, not at all. Not with 405 feet standing between him and West Green. Not with Jeff Hundley pitching with the fourth-best ERA (1.14) in the nation. And not with Ohio coach Joe Carbone flashing him the bunt sign. The bunt sign?

"I was bunting Bart, because I didn't think he had some good cuts at the guy," said Carbone of Leahy, who grounded out and struck out in his first two at-bats. "And I thought Arbinger had some good cuts at him."

Leahy understood the call. He said Arbinger had been "hitting the heck out of the ball." So why not take the bunt sign for the first time this year? Why not surprise everyone?

He does. He squares up for the first pitch, missing for a strike. He squares up for the second, actually moving the bat forward with both hands in a half swing-half bunt. He misses again. Now, with two strikes, the bunt sign is off. Leahy can be Leahy.

"I had to go down to get the pitch," Leahy said. "I hit the ball really solid off the bat. But I thought it was too low."

It wasn't. The ball took off on almost a straight line toward center field, just clearing the fence and sailing past the hitters' screen.

But by then no one was looking at the ball.

The boisterous guys from the Cat's Eye stood on the Ohio dugout, lifting their arms into the air, palms flat - raising the roof. Carbone slapped Leahy on the butt as he rounded third. Everyone else slapped him on the helmet as he crossed the plate - winner of the contest, the first person ever to hit a home run in a game at Bob Wren Stadium.

There were other contests. The victor in the First Pitcher to Ever Rally His Team to Victory at Wren Stadium Contest goes to starter Bobby Sismondo. He had given up only one run on a sacrifice fly in the fifth. But Ohio bats remained silent. When he came into the dugout in the fifth, he was, as Leahy said, pumped up and ready to go.

"Some of the guys might have took it the wrong way," Sismondo said. "I yelled a little bit, tried to get them pumped up. But I shouldn't have said some of the things I said. I tried to get them riled up, their hearts pumping."

It worked. People had hardly settled back into their seats when Arbinger hit a home run of his own to right field, finishing a close second to Leahy in the Home Run Contest.

Ohio got one more run but needed none.

"Bobby's like horse with oats in the barn," Carbone said. "He smells a win. And you could see he pumped up. You get Bobby a couple runs in a game, and most of the time Bobby will finish it up for you."

The game was just a highlight of Dedication Day, which fell almost a year after the groundbreaking last April.

First, Ohio Athletics Director Tom Boeh started it off with a speech. He apologized for the stadium not being done. The grass surrounding the stadium has yet to sprout, and the walkways are still covered in gravel.

But that didn't affect the speeches.

Wren won the contest to get most laughs, as he said they should really name the stadium after his wife. Carbone won for most touching speech, as he broke down upon mentioning the late Joe Dean, who headed the stadium fund-raising effort.

"I'm very happy with how it went," Carbone said. "I thought it was a great day for Ohio University, for coach Wren, for the baseball program, for the community. Yeah, we would have like to win the double header. But it's not a perfect world."