Junior pitcher Gavin Bruni (10) lasted five innings on the mound as Ohio State secured a 16-1 win over Michigan Saturday on the road in Ann Arbor. Credit: Courtesy of Ohio State Athletics
The Buckeye baseball squad experienced a hard-fought series loss against the Wolverines, losing two out of three at Ray Fisher Stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Ohio State (19-17, 6-6 Big Ten) was blanked by Michigan (20-21, 10-5 Big Ten) in the first game of the series before a dominant 16-1 Buckeye win on Saturday. In the rubber match on Sunday, Ohio State relinquished a 3-1 lead in the sixth inning to give Michigan its fifth-straight Big Ten series win.
Head coach Bill Mosiello said this weekend was really a matter of competitive baseball and a lack of “clutch” at-bats from hitters.
“We got beat playing really good baseball games,” Mosiello said. “We’re just not a great team with runners in scoring position.”
After scoring zero runs on Friday, the Ohio State lineup crushed 16 hits resulting in 16 runs in Saturday’s game. The biggest takeaway of the series for Mosiello was the unpredictability of the Buckeye offense, he said
“We get excited because we show signs of being a great offensive team and then we show signs of being like a below-average one,” Mosiello said. “We’ve shown we can play with anybody and then we’ve shown that we’re very human and we can lose to anybody.”
Two Michigan pitchers, Kurt Barr and Jacob Denner, seemed to be Ohio State’s kryptonite on Friday as they threw a combined nine innings of shut-out baseball, the Wolverines winning 4-0.
In the top of the first, Ohio State started off with sophomore shortstop Henry Kaczmar getting a hit followed by a walk from catcher Matthew Graveline. However, both were left stranded to end the Buckeye rally. Sophomore southpaw Landon Beidleschies started his first inning for Ohio State with a couple of strikeouts that ended the first frame with no score.
In the bottom of the second, Michigan shortstop Kyle Dernedde hit a sacrifice fly to right field to score one, giving the Wolverines a 1-0 lead.
The Buckeyes showed life in the fifth with back-to-back singles by junior outfielders Josh Stevenson and Trey Lipsey, but both players were caught stealing to end any momentum from Ohio State.
Michigan extended its lead in the home half of the sixth after second baseman Mack Timbrook smashed an RBI double to left-center before Dernedde earned another run-scoring hit, plating Timbrook on a single up the middle to give the Wolverines a 3-0 lead.
Freshman Isaac Cadena started the seventh inning off with a double down the right-field line that resulted in Denner coming in to relieve Barr. Denner silenced any Ohio State offense to keep the score 3-0.
In the bottom of the eighth, Dernedde obtained a hat-trick of RBIs as he singled home a run for his third RBI of the day, putting Michigan up 4-0.
Beidelschies earned his sixth loss of the season, giving up three runs on four hits in 5.2 innings pitched. Ohio State hitters combined for seven hits but left Friday’s game with a total of eight runners left on base and zero runs.
Barr posted his second consecutive quality start and got the win on the mound after pitching 6.2 innings of no-run baseball. Denner got the save, as he held the Buckeyes hitless in 2.1 innings pitched.
After Ohio State was shut out on Friday, the Buckeye offense came out firing in the second game of the series, winning 16-1.
Junior pitcher Gavin Bruni was on the mound for the Buckeyes but was quickly attacked as sophomore Mitch Voit gave Michigan an early lead in the bottom of the first off of an RBI double to put the score at 1-0.
The Wolverines’ starting catcher on Friday, Will Rogers, turned into their starting pitcher on Saturday and in the top of the third, Ohio State took advantage of him. The Buckeyes collected three runs off of a two-run dinger by Miller and an RBI triple from junior Tyler Pettorini to give the Buckeyes a 3-1 advantage.
Bruni and Rogers both cruised through the next two innings and the score remained steady until the top of the sixth inning when the Ohio State offense erupted.
To start the inning off, captain Mitchell Okuley and graduate infielder Joseph Mershon hit back-to-back singles before a double play from Cadena left Okuley on third with two outs. Another single from Stevenson plated Okuley, and Miller was walked to put two on with two outs. Lipsey and Kaczmar were next up and smashed two singles, scoring two and extending the Buckeye lead to 6-1.
In the top of the seventh, the bottom of the Buckeyes’ lineup got involved as Cadena and Stevenson both hit RBI doubles to left field to bring two runs home. After the doubles, Miller, Lipsey and Kaczmar drew three straight walks to bring in one more run, putting Ohio State up big, 9-1.
In the eighth, Mershon delivered a sacrifice fly to score Pettorini before senior Hunter Rosson hit a ball that smacked the left field wall and drove in two more runs. Kaczmar proceeded to hit a single to left field to bring home Rosson as the Ohio State lead grew to double digits, 13-1.
Rosson came back up in the ninth and earned another RBI off of a single that rolled through the infield. Freshman Zach Fjelstad was next up and hit a double to right field, which plated the final two runs of the game for the Buckeyes.
Bruni got the win after he struck out six and allowed just one run on one hit. Sophomore Hunter Shaw and freshman Andrew Edrington each pitched an inning of hitless baseball and combined for three strikeouts. Stevenson led the way for Ohio State, going 4-5 with four hits and five runs scored, both being career-highs.
In the series finale, two home runs propelled the Wolverines over the Buckeyes to end the series with a 7-5 final score.
Michigan’s roster contains several different two-way players, and Rogers and Voit were the candidates this weekend. After Voit started Friday and Saturday’s game in right field, he transitioned to be the starting pitcher on Sunday.
Ohio State grabbed a run off of him in the first inning on an RBI fielder’s choice from Okuley, but the lead only lasted an inning as the Wolverines scored on a bunt single from Timbrook in the second that knotted the score at 1-1.
Freshman Gavin DeVooght got the ball for the Buckeyes in front of his hometown crowd and delivered his longest outing of the season. He recorded a career-high six strikeouts and allowed one run in five innings pitched.
The Buckeyes gained the lead back in the top of the sixth when Rosson capitalized on another pinch-hit opportunity as he drove in two with a single to right-center field.
In the home half of the sixth inning, Michigan captured the lead on back-to-back jacks. Junior third baseman Cole Caruso struck a ball past the left-field fence to plate three, and Rogers followed that up with a no-doubt home run over Stevenson’s head, putting the Wolverines ahead 5-3.
The Ohio State offense battled back in the seventh as a sacrifice fly from Mershon scored Pettorini, giving the Buckeyes some hope, but a two-RBI double from outfielder Stephen Hrustich put Michigan up 7-4 in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Kaczmar started the ninth inning with a double to left-center field and scored on a Pettorini sacrifice fly, but a routine fly ball to center field ended the game with a final score of 7-5 and sent the Buckeyes back to Columbus with a Big Ten series loss.
Ohio State is scheduled to play its second game against Wright State Tuesday.
On April 16, the Buckeyes beat the Raiders in a highly competitive 14-13 bout. Mosiello said the one thing he would’ve changed is the bullpen usage in a nonconference game.
“We have to pitch better and pray that we hit as hard as we did last time,” Mosiello said.
After the Tuesday matchup against Wright State, Ohio State will host Michigan State at Bill Davis Stadium Friday through Sunday. The Spartans currently sit right behind the Buckeyes at No. 8 in the Big Ten.
