Kent State University
Ohio
Rematch of Last Season's MAC Championship Set for Tuesday
4/2/2018 6:03:00 PM | Softball
Kent State and Ohio will meet for the first time since facing off in the Mid-American Conference Tournament Championship a season ago. The Golden Flashes (17-12, 3-3 MAC) play the Bobcats (18-12, 6-0 MAC) in a MAC midweek doubleheader on Tuesday, April 3 at 1 p.m. in Athens at the Ohio Softball Field. Game two will begin roughly thirty minutes after the conclusion of the first game, and both can be heard on Golden Flashes iHeart Radio.
Media Information
Golden Flashes iHeart Radio
Live Stats: (Game 1) (Game 2)
Last Time Out
The Golden Flashes took one game in a three-game series from Toledo last weekend and won it in walk-off fashion on a Bailey Brownfield single to left field. Brownfield had tremendous week at the dish hitting 12-for-21 with 10 RBIs and four extra base hits. She hit her first dinger of the season in the series finale on a three-run shot to right centerfield which tied the game in the third inning.
Outfielder Kennadie Goth also had a successful series. She collected nine hits against the Rockets with four in the first game and leads KSU with a .500 average (11-for-22) in conference games. Maria Cegledy was three-for-three in the first game of the series and clubbed her first career bomb to left in the sixth inning. The Pataskala, Ohio native has five RBI in conference games, which is second most on the team.
#FlashFacts
- KSU is off to a 3-3 start in the MAC for the second straight season.
- As a team, the Flashes are hitting .307, which leads the MAC.
- Kent State also has the best fielding percentage in the conference at .970.
- Holly Speers has 40 career home runs and ranks second in school history and seventh in league history. She currently is 19th in the nation in active career home runs.
- Speers is second in the nation in batting average (.520) and on-base percentage (.667) and ranks fourth in slugging percentage (1.013).
- Kent State has won five weekly awards this season. Holly Speers was named MAC East Player of the Week three times, Emily Dobbin once and Madi Huck MAC East Pitcher of the Week once.
- The Flashes scored eight runs in the first inning against Georgetown last week and are 6-1 when scoring in the first inning.
- The Flashes have registered four walk-off wins this season. KSU came back from trailing by five entering the sixth last week against Western Michigan and came back to beat Toledo. Both were the first game of the series.
Kent State Selected to win MAC East and MAC Tournament
The Golden Flashes were picked in the MAC's preseason coaches' poll to win the MAC East Division and MAC Tournament. Kent State was picked to win the MAC East Division in back-to-back seasons. KSU has won a MAC championship in three straight years with two regular season crowns in 2015 and 2016 and a tournament title a season ago.
Success in the MAC
Kent State has a 59-28 record in MAC play over the last four seasons with three championships. The Golden Flashes are also one of only two schools to win the tournament multiple times in the last decade. Under head coach Eric Oakley, Kent State has a 7-3 record in the MAC Tournament.
Series History / Scouting Ohio
Kent State leads the all-time series against Ohio 65-50 and will meet for the 115th time on Tuesday afternoon. The two met six times last season and three times in the MAC Tournament and twice in the championship. Kent State came back to win three games in the same day and came out of the loser's bracket to win the tournament championship. The Golden Flashes have won four of the last five meetings against the Bobcats.
Ohio has an unblemished 6-0 record in MAC games and sit along atop the standings. The Bobcats are on a nine-game winning streak and swept Central Michigan and Eastern Michigan in MAC series. During the winning streak Ohio also defeated power conference school Pitt and reigning CAA Champion James Madison.
Senior Danielle Stiene is the ace of the staff with an 11-5 record and an ERA of 2.48 in 104.1 innings of work. She has struck out 132 while walking only 25. Freshman Madi McCrady has also bolstered the staff and is 5-4 with a 3.89 ERA. Outfielder Mikayla Cooper leads the squad with a .365 batting average, seven home runs and 24 RBIs.
Last Year's MAC Championship
The Golden Flashes were forced to play from the loser's bracket after Ohio defeated KSU, 2-0 in the semifinals. Kent State defeated Northern Illinois, 9-3, to advance to the championship round with one loss. Head coach Eric Oakley rolled the dice and started freshman pitcher Madi Huck in the first championship game and she answered the call with the best start of her career. She controlled the Ohio lineup from the first pitch and scattered five hits. The game went to extras and in the eighth inning Holly Speers doubled to score Maddy Grimm for the only run of the contest.
Kent State had all the momentum going into the next game and blasted two first inning home runs off the bats of Hunter Brancifort and Ronnie Ladines. Ohio only had three hits in the second game as Kent State pitching shutout the Bobcats in 15 innings of action. Emily Dobbin made one of the most pivotal and impressive catches in program history, robbing a home run in left to secure the game for the Flashes. It was only the third time in the tournament history that a team came out of the loser's bracket to win the championship.
Last Time in Athens
In last season's sole meeting along the banks of the Hocking River, Kent State bested Ohio 1-0 in 11 innings. It was one of most dramatic games in recent Golden Flashes' memory. With both KSU's Ronnie Ladines and Ohio's Savannah Jo Dorsey dealing, neither offense could crack the sensational pitching. Ladines and battery mate senior Nicole Teefy combined to make the play of the game for the Flashes. With the potential winning run on third and two outs in the bottom of the 10th, Teefy scrambled to retrieve a ball that went to the backstop and made a perfect throw to Ladines, who was covering the plate and applied the tag on speedster Deanna Cole to send the game to the 11th. That setup Bailey Brownfield to crush her only homer of the season to center and Ladines shut down down Ohio the next inning. KSU won the game to take first in the East Division and the game turned the tide on the season.
