One day after being shut out by the Louisville Cardinals, the Ohio State baseball team was left wondering where its bats have been.

The explosive hitting returned Wednesday for the Buckeyes, though they lost their second-straight game to the Cardinals (38-7, 14-4 in the Big East), 10-8, as throwing errors once again cost OSU (24-17, 8-7 in the Big Ten).

Louisville third baseman Phil Wunderlich hit his 18th home run of the season, a solo shot in the top of the fourth inning off of OSU pitcher Brett McKinney to take a 9-5 lead.

OSU catcher Dan Burkhart, who hit 5-for-5 on the afternoon, had an RBI single in the sixth inning, and center fielder Michael Stephens added another RBI single later in the inning to cut the deficit to 9-7.

The Buckeyes closed the deficit to 9-8 after right fielder Brian DeLucia scored on a double play.

In the eighth inning, Louisville shortstop Adam Duvall added an insurance run to push the final score to 10-8, singling home center fielder Drew Haynes who reached base on a throwing error.

“I liked the way we competed a little bit,” OSU coach Bob Todd said. “But we dug ourselves in too deep a hole.”

The error was OSU’s third of the game, which has been an Achilles’ heel for the team during a 3-8 stretch.

Despite allowing eight runs in the first three innings, the Buckeyes responded with a Burkhart solo home run in the first, two runs in the second and two more off of an RBI double from shortstop Cory Rupert in the third to stay within reach at 8-5.

“It was a good feeling to finally get a zero off the stats,” said Burkhart, who hit his first home run of the season Wednesday.

Both starters, OSU’s Eric Shinn and Louisville’s Bob Revesz, failed to pitch more than two innings, as the teams combined for 10 runs in the first two frames.

McKinney went three innings, giving up only the one home run to the Cardinals.
DeLucia suffered a pinky finger injury in the seventh inning after being hit by a pitch.

“Right now, it’s just a bruise” DeLucia said. “But I will know more tomorrow.”

After only registering five hits in Tuesday night’s 6-0 loss, the Buckeyes pounded out eight runs and 14 hits on the afternoon.

“Putting up eight runs should give our hitters confidence for the weekend series against Illinois,” Burkhart said.

With the win, Louisville coach Dan McDonnell has won five straight contests against OSU in his three years as coach of the Cardinals.

“They’re in the top 10 for a reason,” Todd said.

OSU will host a three-game series against conference foe Illinois at Bill Davis Stadium beginning at 6:35 p.m. Friday.