Ohio State junior right-handed pitcher Garrett Burhenn (7) preparing to deliver a pitch in the Ohio State-Iowa game March 26. Ohio State won the game 8-2. Credit: Mackenzie Shanklin | Photo Editor
Ohio State redshirt senior catcher Brent Todys described junior right-handed pitcher Garrett Burhenn as a “jokester” off the field, but “one of the biggest competitors on the team” when he’s between the lines.
That competitive nature was on full display Sunday night as Burhenn dazzled in his first-career complete game, and his key to success was — as simple as it may sound — throwing strikes, helping the Buckeyes pick up their lone win of the weekend.
“He was a horse today,” head coach Greg Beals said. “They had the double and the backside hit, but he settled in and completely controlled the baseball game from that point on.”
Burhenn sports a lethal sinking fastball and a slider that he didn’t necessarily use as much Sunday as he has in prior starts.
Beals emphasizes the importance of fastball command for his pitchers as the difference-maker in their level of success, something that Burhenn executed to perfection against Indiana.
“When he can pitch with his fastball and protect that slider … that allows that slider to be devastating when he does that because the less they see it, the more they’re going to swing-and-miss on it,” Beals said.
On Sunday, the righty threw 120 pitches against Indiana with a whopping 87 in there for strikes for a 72.5 strike percentage, never reaching a three-ball count to any of the 34 batters he faced.
The Indianapolis native is no stranger to pounding the zone, though, throwing 65.4 percent of his total 1,188 pitches this year for strikes.
“Immediately, I want my fastball to be strikes. I want strike one,” Burhenn said. “For the most part, I think I got strike one tonight, but I wanted to go fastball and then kind of mix to whatever offspeed I felt like was right against the hitters.”
Finding the strike zone has been an issue for the Ohio State pitching staff, who have surrendered the fourth-most walks in the Big Ten with 172 free passes, but the dominant starts this season for the Buckeyes’ hurlers have all centered around throwing strikes.
The outing from redshirt junior Seth Lonsway — who has walked the second-most hitters in the conference this season — in Game 1 of April 3’s doubleheader in Columbus, in which he struck out 17 Hoosier batters, comes to mind.
In that game, the left-hander threw 67.4 percent strikes — up almost 10 percent from his 58.3 strike percentage this season.
What also made Burhenn’s outing special was how gritty it was, as he had to earn all 27 outs.
Burhenn’s only run allowed was in the first inning on a chopped infield single to junior shortstop Zach Dezenzo. The runner advanced to third on the hit and scored on Dezenzo’s on-the-run throwing error, so the potential for the wheels to fall off once again for Ohio State reared its ugly head.
He was unphased, though, responding with eight more scoreless innings and retiring 13 of the final 15 hitters he faced.
In the ninth, he trotted back out with 107 pitches already under his belt and was hit in the head with a line-drive comebacker. Instead of exiting the game — which was certainly plausible due to injury and high pitch count — he elected to stay in and finish off his first-career complete game.
“I wanted that one for the team as myself as much for my family that were there to watch me and friends and loved ones that were there,” Burhenn said. “I just want us to finish strong and I felt like I owed something to ‘Buckeye Nation’ and to the brothers for tonight’s game.”
