Bobcats fall to Wright State

by Michael Canan
THE POST

Ohio and Wright State used yesterday's baseball game to get work for their respective pitchers. Wright State chose to use its starters, while the Bobcats went with a group of relievers. Ohio came up on the short end of the stick, losing 10-4.

Ohio used pitchers Casey McKinney, Bryan Costin, Dan Cobb and Chuck Lombardy, who is still rehabilitating his arm from off-season elbow surgery.

"We've got to get guys out there," Ohio Head Coach Joe Carbone said on the WOUB post-game show. "Some threw well. Some didn't, but we have to get them out there and get them some work. We had Chuck out there, and some young guys.

"We saw some real improvement in Danny Cobb. Chuck still has a ways to go on his rehab, but he needed to get out there and get out of the bullpen."

McKinney, the most experienced of the group, started the game with a 1-0 lead thanks to an RBI single by left fielder Mike Arbinger. McKinney gave up two first-inning runs; the first scoring on a single by outfielder Josh Hart and the second on a sacrifice fly by Kresch.

Costin replaced McKinney in the third inning and gave up a leadoff walk to outfielder Scott Marshall. Two outs later, first baseman Jason Krenzke ripped a RBI double, and came around to score when shortstop Brian Wingfeld overthrew his catcher, Jeremy Johnson. Johnson stopped the ball by throwing his glove at it, but the umpires ruled Johnson's action to be illegal and awarded Kremsky home plate.

Ohio picked up two runs in the fifth, but they could have picked up more than that. The Bobcats loaded the bases with nobody out, but right fielder Cory Keylor grounded into a double play as Wingfeld scored. Kyes added a RBI single in the inning to cut the Wright State lead to 4-3.

Wright State picked up three runs in the bottom of the fifth. The Raiders followed Ohio's example, loading the bases off Costin with nobody out. Hart grounded in a run, and scored two more runs when Carlone couldn't field a bad hopper to third.

Wright State added another run in the sixth, and scored two more off Lombardy in the eighth, giving Wright State the 10-4 win.

"There's not much you can say about this one," Carbone said. "It was all Wright State. They hit the ball better. They played better defense. They pitched well. They were a better team than we were tonight.

"They went in between the white lines and did a better job than we did. When you throw the cutoff to the wrong base and lose a fly ball in the sun when you didn't think the sunglasses would work and think you have the steal sign when you don't then those things will hurt you, and they did tonight."

Carbone said many Ohio hitters were swinging for the fences, which hurt the offense.

"They had the wind in and they were trying to hit the ball out of the park," he said. "The guys who drove the ball down got hits. Wingfeld, Carlone and Kyes all drove the ball down and got hits."

The Bobcats need to put the game behind them heading into this weekend's games against second-place Bowling Green, who is just above Ohio in the Mid-American Conference standings, Carbone said.

"This weekend is about as important as it can be," he said. "We've got to win some ball games. We've got to win more than we lose."

Ohio opens the weekend series at 1 p.m. Saturday at Bob Wren Stadium.