Flashes Fall to Ohio at MAC Tournament, 2-1

Friday, May 13

Akron, Ohio

7:30 p.m.

Kent State University

37-22

Ohio University

36-22

Kent State

Ohio

Photo by: Andy Drabic

Flashes Fall to Ohio at MAC Tournament, 2-1

5/13/2016 11:57:00 PM | Softball

Box Score

Box Score (pdf)

AKRON, Ohio – Kent State collected eight hits but struggled to manufacture runs in a 2-1 loss to Ohio in Friday evening's Mid-American Conference Softball Championship elimination Friday afternoon at Firestone Stadium.

Despite doubling the Bobcats in hits, the Golden Flashes (37-22) came out on the short end of a pitchers' duel in which all of the runs were scored via the long ball.

Junior Ronnie Ladines held Ohio to just four hits, but a two-run homer by Ohio's Mikayla Cooper was the difference. Ladines provided the Flashes with their only scoring on a solo shot in the sixth inning.

"I thought we played pretty well tonight," said interim head coach Eric Oakley. "We just didn't get the key hits when we needed them. We had a couple of base running mistakes that were pretty costly in a one-run game. It's disappointing, but it doesn't take away from the year we've had. I'm very proud of this team and they fought hard."

Ohio struck quickly with a two-run homer by Mikayla Cooper in the bottom of the first inning.

After MAC Pitcher of the Year Savannah Jo Dorsey struck out the side in the first, Kent State had at least one batter reach in each of the next five innings. A combination of bad luck and a lack of timely hits prevented the Flashes from scoring until junior Ronnie Ladines blasted a solo shot to center field to start the sixth inning. Senior Michele Duffy, who singled, was the only Flash to reach base after that.

Senior Shelbi Tilton went 2-for-2 in her final game in a Kent State uniform. Tilton's 177 at-bats are tied for the third-most in program history and her 55 hits are just outside the top 10. Sophomore Holly Speers hit a double and drew a pair of walks.

Ladines (23-10) bounced back from a rough outing earlier in the day with another terrific performance. She held the Bobcats to just four hits and had six strikeouts with any walks. The Arlington, Wash. native's 23 victories are tied for the fifth-most in program history.

Notes
• Kent State's 37 wins are the fourth-most in program history.
• The Flashes set single-season team records for games played (59), at-bats (1,537), hits (408), RBIs (238), walks (183) and innings pitched (385.1).
• The senior class of Nicki Cregan, Michele Duffy, Alyssa Frankenfield, Arika Roush, Shelbi Tilton and Erika Warren leaves as the fourth-winningest class in Kent State history with 130 wins.
• In addition to leading the Flashes to back-to-back MAC regular season championships, they led Kent State to the most wins over a two-year stretch in program history with 78 victories in their final two seasons.