Brian Price/THE POST Ohio softball player Sara Kraus slides into third base after hitting a triple off Marshall pitcher Natasha Johnson. The triple came during an 2-0 Bobcat victory in the first game of a doubleheader at Ohio Softball Field yesterday.

There are some games that teams expect to win.

Ohio expected to win both ends of its doubleheader with Marshall yesterday at Ohio Softball Field. It fell short of its expectations.

Ohio (21-24 overall, 9-4 in the Mid-American Conference) blanked Marshall (20-17, 4-6) 2-0 in the first game of the doubleheader but dropped the second game 5-4 in an 11-inning heartbreaker.

"We weren't expecting a split," Ohio head coach Roanna Brazier said. "We should have won both ball games. Marshall did a good job. The Marshall pitchers pitched well."

The first game was business as usual for Ohio. Pitcher Kasey Dowd (12-9) went the distance to get the shutout. The victory was Dowd's ninth straight. She has yet to lose in conference games.

"(Dowd) goes out and battles," Brazier said. "She knows she is going to get the ball in the first game of every series."

The Bobcats provided the run support for Dowd in the third inning. Left fielder Sara Kraus tripled and center fielder Missy Samus reached base when Marshall third baseman Vanessa Clarkson didn't make a play on a ground ball. Samus then stole second and both she and Kraus scored when first baseman Jen Morris singled to center field with two outs.

Dowd proved her mettle in the fifth inning. With runners on second and third base and one out, she struck out Marshall center fielder Nikki Wilcox and got shortstop Kyle Armstrong to pop out to end the inning.

The second game offered a promising start for Ohio. Second baseman Jen Sewell doubled in Morris and shortstop Jackie Rensel to give Ohio a 3-0 lead after three innings. Ohio Pitcher Heather Hagen retired the first nine Marshall batters she faced.

Hagen ran into trouble in the fourth inning, though. Thundering Herd catcher Aimee Reiner hit a two-run home run. Then Marshall went ahead 4-3 in the sixth inning on RBI singles by designated hitter Natasha Johnson and outfielder Carrie Dean.

Ohio appeared done for the day when Samus and Egelhoff were retired in the bottom of the seventh inning with the team still trailing by one. But Morris had other ideas, as she hit a two-out solo home run to even the game. Morris said she didn't expect the home run.

"When I had a 1-1 count, she threw high and I swung and missed so I wasn't expecting a strike," she said. "She threw the same pitch again and I swung the bat as hard as I can."

The teams battled back and forth until the 11th inning. Marshall scored on a sacrifice fly by first baseman Jen Morris and Ohio was unable to match the run in the bottom of the inning.

"We just don't like being inconsistent," Dowd said. "We just need to take care of business in our games this weekend. We control our own destiny."

Marshall pitcher Sara Gulla went all 11 innings and kept the Bobcats off balance most of the second game. She notched 11 strikeouts to combat an equally gutsy 11th inning performance from Hagen. Brazier said she was proud of the team for never giving up, but she said in the end too many opportunities were wasted.

"Almost every inning we left runners on base," she said. "We didn't get our sacrifice bunts down. I think that killed us."

The team faces two crucial doubleheaders against MACopponents at home this weekend. It battles Central Michigan at 2 p.m. Friday and Eastern Michigan at 1 p.m. Saturday.

Morris said the Marshall loss was disappointing, but the team must look toward doing well this weekend.

"Marshall is a good, scrappy team but a team we should have beaten twice," she said. "We just need to control our destiny."