Ohio State junior right handed pitcher Jack Neely (10) pitches during the Ohio State-Maryland game on March 28. Ohio State won 5-4. Credit: Christian Harsa | Special Project Director
After the Buckeyes put up seven runs between the bottom of the fifth and sixth innings, they found themselves with a commanding 9-2 lead — or so they thought.
Ohio State (19-17) dropped the opening contest of its two-game mini-series against Nebraska (27-11) 11-9 after a colossal meltdown by the Buckeyes’ bullpen, surrendering the game’s final nine runs in the final three innings.
“The way I managed that is we had a seven-run lead and nine outs to get, and I felt confident and also that we needed to be able to get some outs from guys to get us deeper in the weekend and try to save some of our bullets for all four [games],” head coach Greg Beals said. “That’s a miss on my part, I guess, because it certainly didn’t play out for us very well.”
Heading into the top of the fifth inning, the Cornhuskers had just one hit with their five other runners allowed by Ohio State junior left-hander Seth Lonsway reaching on a walk, an error or a hit-by-pitch.
He was pulled after six innings, allowing only two runs on two hits while striking out nine, passing former Ohio State pitcher Tim Smith for sixth all-time on the Buckeyes’ strikeout list with 261.
“Seth was really good on the battle side. Not his sharpest, not his best, but really darn good,” Beals said. “When Seth gave up the ball, he’s got a seven-run lead. Again, it’s a quality start: six innings and less than three earned runs, so great, quality start for Seth Lonsway.”
Beals went to junior righty Bayden Root who struggled with his command.
He allowed back-to-back singles before walking junior shortstop Spencer Schwellenbach to load the bases. He threw a wild pitch and hit sophomore left fielder Leighton Banjoff with a pitch to push it to 9-4.
Root was lifted for 6-foot-5 freshman righty Nate Haberthier who allowed two more runs to cross on a wild pitch and a groundout to junior infielder Marcus Ernst, before allowing an RBI single to freshman second baseman Brice Matthews.
All runs were charged to Root as Nebraska cut Ohio State’s lead to two.
Junior right-handed pitcher Jack Neely came on to make his third relief appearance of the season and ran into some trouble in the eighth. He loaded the bases on a pair of singles and a walk.
The San Antonio native responded nicely, inducing a pop out and striking out Banjoff to keep the Buckeyes ahead.
Neely came back out for the ninth and quickly surrendered the lead.
Junior designated hitter Cam Chick walked for the second time on the day. Two batters later junior catcher Griffin Everitt hit a two-run, game-tying round-tripper, hobbling around the bases after hurting himself on the swing.
Senior outfielder Joe Acker singled and Neely’s day was done after allowing four hits and two walks in just 1 1/3⅓ innings.
“Jack’s one of our better guys and once you get him going, he has the ability to go multiple,” Beals said.
Beals turned to junior right-handed closer TJ Brock just hoping to limit the damage, but he was unable to get the final two outs of the inning.
Brock fell behind 3-1 in the count to senior center fielder Jaxon Hallmark who crushed an RBI triple off the wall in right-center field to give Nebraska its first lead of the game. Hallmark finished a double shy of the cycle.
Schwellenbach singled — his fourth hit of the game — to score Hallmark and add a little insurance to the Cornhuskers’ lead.
Ohio State went down without a fight in the ninth, ending the game on an 0-for-7 skid at the plate.
It wasn’t all bad for the Buckeyes’ offense, though.
Redshirt senior first baseman Conner Pohl continued his recent tear, swatting a moonshot to deep right-center field in the bottom of the first to give the Buckeyes an early 2-0 lead.
The Arcanum, Ohio, native’s 12th long ball of the year tied him for second with Illinois senior infielder Jackson Raper in the conference home run race. The two still trail Maryland junior shortstop Benjamin Cowles by four homers.
The offense also got three hits from both junior shortstop Zach Dezenzo and Ernst.
For Dezenzo, Saturday’s three-hit ballgame marked the 13th time this season he has posted a multi-hit effort.
As for Ernst, he entered the day hitting a dismal .188 on the season, but his career-high three hits raised his average by 29 points.
Beals said the situational hitting Saturday was “good, not great.”
“In our situations, I think we were executing them three out of five,” Beals said. “We had a couple sacrifice flies, (Kade) Kern had a sac fly, (Brent) Todys had a sac fly, and so I thought we did a pretty good job of getting some of those situations executed.”
The Buckeyes are now in must-win situations for each of their final six games if they want a shot in the NCAA Tournament. They will look to help themselves in Sunday’s doubleheader.
Junior right-hander Will Pfennig will take the mound for Ohio State in the 1 p.m. game against Nebraska and junior righty Garrett Burhenn will toe the rubber in the 5 p.m. night cap against Indiana.
