Late inning miscue sends Bobcats to OVAC semifinal setback

WINTERSVILLE — Through four innings of Tuesday's Ohio Valley Athletic Conference 4A semifinal, the Cambridge Bobcats were in great shape, leading a 13-3 Indian Creek squad by a 3-2 margin.

"We had them heading to the fifth. We were right where we wanted to be," CHS head coach Jamaal Lowery said. "We got a couple runs in that first inning to jump out to a lead, and we were playing some good baseball to that point."

Then came the bottom of the fifth where things ran off the rails for the No. 3 seeded Bobcats.

Host Indian Creek put up a huge five-run rally to grab a 7-3 lead, and it held up for the victory and a spot in Saturday's OVAC 4A title game.

Bobcats' mental mistake opens flood gates

In a tightly contested game, often times the team that commits a late miscue can provide a opportunity for their opponent to seize the upper hand.

Cambridge sophomore hurler Dawson Geese had turned in a solid four innings of work on the mound, limiting Indian Creek to just two runs on four hits and held the 3-2 lead.

To open the decisive fifth inning, Stan Amis led off with a solid base hit to start the inning for Indian Creek. Looking to advance Amis into scoring position, Creek put on a sacrifice bunt on with Caleb Bodo executing to perfection.

But this is where the struggles began for the Bobcats, as Geese fielded the bunt and turned to make the out at first base. Problem was, as Geese turned towards first base he had no one to throw to as the bag was uncovered. Allowing both runners to reach with still no outs.

Indian Creek took full advantage of the opportunity, and proceeded to make the Bobcats pay but putting up five runs on four hits with one costly mental mistake to take a 7-3 lead.

"That got that lead off guy on in the fifth, and then the next guy tries to bunt him over into scoring position," Lowery added. "And there's no one there to cover and now they have two base runners on with no outs. And from there the flood gates opened up for them."

"You give a team an opening like that, in a tight game it just puts the pressure squarely on you," Lowery said. "I mean Dawson is a young kid, just a sophomore. He was pitching a good game up to that point, but that put him in a tight spot. And now everybody starts trying to do too much, and things just snowballed out of control."

Painful loss, but Bobcats need short memory

Watching a potential opportunity to advance to the OVAC championship game slip away was tough, but Lowery says his team will now have to just regroup and move on.

"It made it tough on us, that it was late in the game," Lowery said. "That only gave us two at bats to try to regroup and we weren't able to get it done tonight. I think the kids all know we let an opportunity slip away from us."

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"We still have some big goals out there in front of us," Lowery continued. "One bad inning can hurt you in baseball, and it did that to us tonight. You just have to put it behind you, plenty of baseball still ahead of us. Tournament draw coming up this Sunday. We will just get back to work starting tomorrow."

Geese took the hard luck loss on the mound for Cambridge (10-6), allowing seven runs on nine hits with one strikeout and four walks.

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Indian Creek finished with a 10-3 edge in hits in the contest, with senior Regan Rogers turning in a 2-for-4 effort for the Bobcats with a pair of singles with an RBI. Geese helped himself with an RBI double for the other Cambridge hit.

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This article originally appeared on The Daily Jeffersonian: Cambridge Bobcats see opportunity for spot in OVAC title game slip away