Bobcat Attack - Ohio Baseball

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Topic: 2025 Results

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Andrew Ruck

2/17/2025 8:52 AM

Rough start to the season, getting swept at Wofford. BUT...2 of the 3 losses were 1 run games, and Wofford is a better program than you may think (42 wins last year and an NCAA berth). So this does not really concern me, although the weekend showed we will struggle to find 3 reliable starting pitchers for the billionth year in a row. Need to do better at West Georgia this weekend.

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BillyTheCat

2/17/2025 10:06 AM

Andrew Ruck wrote:expand_more

Any word on wether or not funding for scholarships will increase next year now that the 11.9 is no longer a max figure.

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100%Cat

2/19/2025 8:35 AM

I saw they had an 8-4 lead in the 9th in Game 2 and lost 9-8. Eeek.

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Andrew Ruck

2/23/2025 2:33 PM

Bobcats drop 2 of 3 at West Georgia, all close and fairly low scoring. Total score for the whole weekend was 9-7. So similar to last weekend except the bats cooled off and the pitching had some success. Still haven't really seen anything that makes me neither optimistic nor pessimistic about how we fare in the MAC.

Probably the best hitting has come from a true freshman 2nd baseman, Matt Ineich. Feels like that is more and more rare to see a true freshman get a chance, so far so good.

Looks like the weather will cooperate enough for the home opener series starting Friday.

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BillyTheCat

2/23/2025 7:12 PM

Andrew Ruck wrote:expand_more

Didn’t West Georgia just move up to DI 6 months ago?

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Andrew Ruck

2/23/2025 8:59 PM

Yes and they weren't anything special in D2. It surprised me that the offense struggled so much with their pitching, I figured they would put up 30+ runs.

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spongeBOB CATpants

2/24/2025 2:22 PM

Haven't been able to follow as closely as I usually do due to travel for work but I'm concerned after dropping 2/3 to West Georgia although keeping it low scoring was a positive sign.

Was mulling over the team stats and came across a weird one. We are a successful 9/9 in stolen base attempts, obliviously a great stat. Our opponents are 13/13 so we are yet to throw a runner out. That's highly concerning, if we can't stop the run game in the MAC, we'll give up 10+ runs a game. Hard to tell what's going on there because it could be the pitchers are doing a bad job of holding runners but it could be that we don't have a good arm behind the dish. Hoping its the pitchers and that they will get better soon because its hard to overcome a weak arm at catcher.

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Ryan Carey

2/24/2025 4:24 PM

With 6 catchers on the roster, have to imagine one of them has a decent arm.

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BillyTheCat

2/24/2025 8:29 PM

Ryan Carey wrote:expand_more

With 6 catchers on the roster, have to imagine one of them has a decent arm.

6 catchers???

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Andrew Ruck

2/25/2025 11:56 AM

Jackson Cauthron has started 4 of 6 at Catcher. The other 2 were started by Trae Cassidy. Interestingly, Cassidy has played 1st base in games in which he has not caught and Cauthron DH'd one of those games. So clearly the coaching staff sees these 2 are crucial bats in the lineup (both have been meh so far).

They were our 2 primary catchers last season as well. Cauthron baserunners were an ugly 48 for 51 and Cassidy's were 17 for 22. That would suggest the backup catcher (starting 1st baseman?) is a stronger run game defender. But, Cassady had more passed balls (7) than Cauthron (4).

I attended a coaches clinic put on by the Bobcats staff a few years ago. When discussing catching, they explicitly declared they are almost entirely focused on receiving and very little on baserunning. They have all their catchers down on a knee and focusing on strong receiving/framing.

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BillyTheCat

2/27/2025 3:43 PM

Andrew Ruck wrote:expand_more

Way the staff has been, they better do a lot more framing.

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Andrew Ruck

3/2/2025 6:45 PM

After a non-upsetting 8-4 loss at West Virginia, the Bobcats take 2 of 3 vs Butler this weekend. It was almost a sweep as in game 2 the Bobcats had the bases loaded and 1 out but could not push a run across and lost 8-7. In game 3, the Bobcats walked it off with a final inning that looked like this, ending with 0 out:

Walk
Hit by pitch
Single
Wild Pitch
Walk
Walk
Single

All in all a pretty good week, one more tuneup with the Thundering Turd and then conference play is here.

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OhioCatFan

3/2/2025 9:46 PM

Andrew: It looks to me like you could better say that Butler lost that last game than OHIO won, in the sense the we got the W based on sloppy play by the opposition and not our stellar bats or gloves. Think that's a fair way to look at it?

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Andrew Ruck

3/3/2025 8:06 AM

In some ways sure, but there is skill in taking walks and HBP. And from the pitching perspective of course you don't want to walk batters, but you also don't want to give the opponent balls to hit. If Butler throws a meatball down the middle that is murdered for a 3 run walk off homer, the narrative is Ohio earned it but if Butler nibbles around the zone and Ohio doesn't bite, the narrative is Butler blew it. That's why I don't really get into all that, the reality is Butler earned a loss and Ohio earned a win.

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OhioCatFan

3/3/2025 10:47 AM

I see your point, but to me if the Butler pitchers challenged us with their best stuff and got the outs they win, but if we lift a homer into the stands it's clear their best stuff wasn't good enough. Winning with HBPs and walks because their pitchers were afraid to challenge us, or just didn't have control, has another feel about it. But, I agree that we take any win we can get!

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spongeBOB CATpants

3/3/2025 2:43 PM

I'll take a series win regardless of opponent. Let's see if the bats stay warm on the road against the Herd. Always good to beat them.

Tough series against BG this weekend. Winning 1 of 3 would be a success IMO.

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Ryan Carey

3/3/2025 4:49 PM

I agree, not getting swept by BG will be tough!

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spongeBOB CATpants

3/5/2025 10:33 AM

Brutal loss in 12 innings last night to the Turd. Walk off grandslam after blowing a 7-3 lead going into the bottom of the 8th. Gave up 3 in the 8th and a game tying bomb in the bottom of the 9th.

Just a midweek game but they gotta find a way to close that out with a 4 run lead.

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Andrew Ruck

3/6/2025 2:10 PM

Agreed, other than the walkoff vs Butler they have struggled to find ways to win. I will say other than the horrific opener, they have been in every single game. The 10 games since have all been decided by 4 or less runs, which I feel like is pretty rare in college baseball. It's good to get that in-game experience early.

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Andrew Ruck

3/10/2025 12:49 PM

Really frustrating weekend. 3 losses all within 3 runs to BG. If we played 7 inning games we may have swept the defending champs.

Friday - Great outing by Blake Gaskey, 7 innings 2 runs. Bullpen blows 4-2 lead in the 8th. Lose 6-4.
Saturday - Solid outing by Hudson Boncal pitching into the 7th. Tied after 7 and the bullpen gives up 5 in the 8th, lose 8-6.
Sunday - A gem by Dillon Masters, 6 scoreless. Bullpen gives up TEN, blows the 6-0 lead and loses 10-7.

I am very encouraged by 3 good starts against BG. We aren't as bad as our 3-11 record would suggest, but we better start winning some games. Let's start with lowly Central Michigan at home.

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BillyTheCat

3/10/2025 6:35 PM

Andrew Ruck wrote:expand_more

Should I order my tickets to Omaha?

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UpSan Bobcat

3/11/2025 3:44 PM

Andrew Ruck wrote:expand_more

7.64 ERA for the team on the season. A quick calculation shows the bullpen has pitched 63 1/3 innings and has allowed 63 ER for an 8.95 ERA. The starters are at 6.14, which obviously isn't good, but it is inflated some by some really bad "starts" in bullpen type games.

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UpSan Bobcat

3/11/2025 8:14 PM

Ohio scored 11 runs in the first inning and then had to rally in the latter innings at Morehead State today. The Eagles tied it by the 4th inning and scored twice in the 6th to lead. The Bobcats scored five in the seventh to regain the lead, only to give up in the bottom of the seventh with four runs allowed to make it 17-16. The Bobcats scored two each in the eighth and ninth.

Trey Barkman provided the relief pitching Ohio has struggled to get with three scoreless innings to close it out. He walked three and gave up one hit.

Brady Alexander homered in his first college at-bat, homered again later, finished with five hits and drove in seven runs.

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Andrew Ruck

3/11/2025 10:17 PM

BillyTheCat wrote:expand_more

Should I order my tickets to Omaha?

Only if it comes with a one way plane ticket and a blocked IP address.

Blew an 11-0 lead, then blew a 16-13 lead. Pretty incredible. Need to add up the total number of blown leads on the young season.

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BillyTheCat

3/12/2025 6:31 PM

Andrew Ruck wrote:expand_more

BillyTheCat wrote:expand_more

Should I order my tickets to Omaha?

But we won. Just win baby just win. This kind of offense, this could be a historic season.