Freshman left-fielder Ronnie Dawson (right) slides into 2nd base during a game against Ball State April 16 at Bill Davis Stadium. OSU lost, 8-6.
Credit: Brian Bassett / Lantern photographer
It seems like nothing can go right for the Ohio State baseball team.
After falling on the road to West Virginia Tuesday, the Buckeyes (21-17, 4-8) lost their second game in as many days, losing to Ball State 8-6 Wednesday at Bill Davis Stadium.
After the loss to Ball State (25-12, 9-2), where OSU’s coach Greg Beals was in charge for eight seasons prior to coming to Columbus, Beals had nothing positive to say about OSU’s performance this week.
“They need to play baseball … we had a poor secondary lead, we had a guy on deck who didn’t tell the guy to slide, we had a guy running to first base that didn’t run to second base and go all the way through like they are trained to do,” Beals said. “That was the microcosm of the ballgame, the microcosm of this sub-.500 stretch that we’re in.”
The Buckeyes took the lead in the first inning after sophomore second baseman Troy Kuhn launched his team-leading fifth home run of the season, a two-run shot.
OSU played a season-high seven pitchers against the Cardinals. The team’s pitching staff started off hot as freshman Curtiss Irving threw two scoreless innings and freshman Yianni Pavlopoulos followed with a scoreless third.
In the fourth inning, OSU brought out redshirt-sophomore pitcher Michael Horejsei to the mound, and things headed south. Horejsei gave up four runs in the inning before being relieved by redshirt-freshman Michael Koltak, who also gave up a run before closing out the frame.
In the bottom of the fourth, it looked like OSU redshirt-junior first baseman Josh Dezse had his fourth home run of the year, but Ball State senior outfielder Sean Godfrey scaled the wall, reaching over and robbing Dezse of a two-run blast.
In the sixth inning, two wild pitches by OSU redshirt-senior Tyler Giannonatti and a sacrifice bunt by the Cardinals plated three runs, extending their lead to 8-2.
OSU scored again in the bottom of the inning when an RBI single by junior catcher Connor Sabanosh got things going again for the Buckeyes.
Redshirt-sophomore shortstop Nick Sergakis —who had struck out in seven straight at-bats — successfully laid a bunt down the third-base line, narrowly beating out the throw to first to end his drought and advance runners to second and third.
With the bases loaded, freshman outfielder Ronnie Dawson hit a two-run RBI single to left field. A sacrifice fly by Kuhn scored Sergakis, bringing the score to 8-6 through seven innings.
Freshman Travis Lakins threw the longest of any Buckeye pitcher, closing out the last three innings of the game with no runs, no hits and three strikeouts.
The Buckeyes are scheduled to return to action Friday at 6:35 p.m. against Murray State at Bill Davis Stadium.
