Juarez Nearly Perfect in Ohio State’s 8-0 Win over Robert Morris – Ohio State Buckeyes
3/8/2007 12:00:00 AM | Softball
March 8, 2007
Box Score | Notes
Box Score .PDF
CLEARWATER, Fla. – Senior Jamee Juarez took a perfect game into the fifth inning and the Ohio State offense would not let her pitch past the sixth as the Buckeye softball team took an 8-0, six inning mercy rule win over Robert Morris Thursday night at the USF adidas Invitational at Eddie C. Moore Complex in Clearwater. Ohio State collected 11 hits in the game, its most in its last six games, and improves to 9-7, while the Colonials fall to 0-2.
Juarez (La Puente, Calif./Wilson) retired the first 12 Robert Morris batters of the game before allowing two singles in the fifth inning. In her six innings of work, they were the only two base runners she allowed as she struck out eight, walked none, and got support behind her from the OSU defense, which did not commit an error for the first time in 11 games.
After a 3-2 win over Fordham earlier Thursday that saw Juarez hit a walk-off solo home run but included five OSU errors, the Buckeyes’ success at the plate and in the field against Robert Morris was what head coach Linda Kalafatis was looking for.
“We came out in that first game and hit some shots so I thought we might have a good day at the plate, but their pitcher did a good job and we swung at some pitches we shouldn’t have,” Kalafatis said. “We hung in there tough, though, and Jamee came up with the big hit. We scored in the first inning in both games today which is important and defensively we did a much better job executing in the second game. The kids looked a lot better at the plate in the second game and we hit a lot more balls on the ground and used our speed.”
Batters one through five in the Ohio State lineup went a combined 8-for-16 (.500) in the game and the Buckeyes scored in every inning except the fifth.
In the fourth inning, senior Nycole Koyano (Walnut, Calif./Walnut) delivered an RBI triple and freshman Sam Marder (Calabasas, Calif./Calabasas) knocked a two-run homer to put Ohio State up, 6-0. The Buckeyes had scored once in each of the first three innings thanks to RBI singles from senior Megan Schwab (Glendale, Ariz./Sunrise Mountain) and Koyano and a double from Juarez.
Koyano, Marder and Schwab all collected two hits in the game.
On Friday, Ohio State will face Central Michigan at 4 p.m. and Hofstra (6 p.m.) as the USF adidas Invitational continues in Clearwater.
### Go Bucks! ###
