Too many errors and too few hits led to two losses for the Ball State University softball team at Ohio State University Wednesday.
The Buckeyes (29-20, 5-11 Big Ten) limited the Cardinals (31-27, 6-8 Mid-American Conference) to three hits in each game of Wednesday's doubleheader while Ball State committed three errors to lead to the 2-1 and 7-0 losses.
"We played all right," coach Craig Nicholson said. "We just made some errors that hurt us a lot. The first game we had some opportunities but couldn't quite get a clutch hit."
Despite being limited to three hits in game one, Ball State stranded one runner in five of the seven innings. Ohio State's Kim Reeder walked one batter and the Buckeye's defense committed three errors that led to three more base runners. A throwing error in the top of the fifth allowed Kamilah Holle to score Ball State's one run after she doubled and was then advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt.
In the second game Ohio State walked no one, committed no errors and caught Katelyn Gunderson stealing to strand two Cardinals.
"I feel like we saw the best pitching we've seen, obliviously since Kent State," Nicholson said. "Some days you're going to get three hits, and you have to find ways to make the most of them."
No Cardinal had more than one hit on the day and four of the team's six hits were singles.
Ball State's three-hit games came one day after Eastern Illinois University limited the team to two hits in the first game of a doubleheader at the BSU Softball Complex.
"I think we're just not having the greatest at bats," said Allie Pennock, who was 0-for-3 with a walk. "They're not horrible at bats, but we just need to do a little bit better job of stringing hits together and then doing something when we get runners on base."
Ohio State's pitchers moved the ball in and out and hit their spots while the Buckeyes' defense also made some good plays to help silence the Cardinals' bats, Pennock said. Ball State also did not start to make the necessary adjustments against the pitchers until late in the second game, the left fielder said.
"I think we just made our adjustments a little too late," Pennock said.
While the Cardinals' failed to produce any runs with their bats, their defense allowed Ohio State to score six unearned runs in the two games.
Ball State allowed one unearned run on a throwing error in the second inning of game one by shortstop Alicia Barkley. A throwing error by Holle at second base in the fourth inning of game two led to four unearned runs, and a fielding error at third base by Kathryn Wilczynski led to another unearned run in the sixth inning.
Nicholson said the errors hurt a bunch, but the Cardinals still would have lost game two without errors as a result of its lack of runs. The defensive lapses and struggles at the plate all kind of go together to lead to the loss, he said.
Overall the team just needs to respond to the errors better, the coach said.
With the two losses Wednesday, Ball State is 3-3 on the season against teams from the Big Ten. Ball State beat Indiana University twice and Purdue University once in addition to losing to the University of Minnesota.
Nicholson said the Buckeyes are a better team than their record in the conference shows.
"In my mind they're better than all of the other Big Ten teams we've seen," he said.
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