Dan Burkhart's RBI double in the bottom of the seventh lifted Ohio State to an 8-7 victory over Minnesota Sunday in the series finale Sunday at Bill Davis Stadium (box score). The shot to center scored Ryan Dew who reached with a single of his own.
Ohio State needed a five-run sixth inning to build a 7-4 lead. Singles by Cory Rupert and J.B. Shuck, who came into the game to hit as the designated hitter after starting the game on the mound, and a walk to Dew loaded the bases with no outs. Burkhart reached on a fielder’s choice that scored Rupert, and Tyler Engle singled to score Shuck. Cory Kovanda singled up the middle to plate both Burkhart and Engle and Justin Miller drove in Tony Kennedy with a sacrifice fly to right to give the Buckeyes a three-run lead.
But Minnesota came right back to tie the game with one swing of the bat in the top of the seventh. Jeff DeSmidt hit a three-run home run off Drew Rucinski, who replaced Shuck on the mound to start the inning. Eric Best got a fly-ball out and a double play grounder to end the inning.
Engle led the Buckeyes in going 3-for-4 with an RBI while Dew was 2-for-3 with a pair of RBI. Kovanda and Burkhart also drove in two. Ohio State out hit Minnesota 13-10 in an error-free game by both teams.
Shuck allowed four runs on seven hits in his 6.0-inning start. He struck out six and walked three, though it was Best who earned the win to improve to 1-1. Minnesota starter Seth Rosin allowed four runs on six hits in 5.0 innings. Chauncy Handran took to the loss to slip to 0-1.
The first series win against Minnesota since 2005 knotted the all-time series between the teams 77-77-2.
Ohio State improved to 16-9 overall and 5-3 in Big Ten action, while the Gophers find themselves 13-14, 3-5 after the loss. Central Michigan visits Bill Davis Stadium for Wing-man Wednesday with a 6:35 p.m. first pitch. Ohio State travels to Oldsmobile Park in Lansing, Mich., next weekend for four games vs. Michigan State.
I appreciate Buckeye Nine readers "rockybuckeye" and "baseballbucks33" keeping up with the action today while I was away from my computer most of the day.
14 comments:
Great come from behind win 8-7 vs. Minnesota.
JB Shuck had a rough 1st couple of innings,but then settled down. Down 3-0 in the 4th,Dew 2b in 2 runs.
Then we put together a nice 5 run 6th inning.The Bucks batted around and had 5 hits on 5 runs.Drew Rucinski came in up 7-4 (7th)and could not get an out. Walked 2 and gave up a single and a big HR to left field from Gophers catcher Jeff Desmidt.The ball was very high,at first i thought it was a fly out to LF but just carried out.
In the 8th Burkhart 2B in Dew who had singled to second.Bucks up 8-7.
Eric Best came in for 3 Perfect innings and got the win.Best has pitched great in relief for the Bucks this year.
Huge win to take the series 3/4 vs. the Gophers at home.Great job by the guys, they never quit and played hard.
OSU 16-9 5-3
UM 17-8 7-1
Minn 13-14 3-5
First time since the 05 season I completely miss and do not see 1 game in a home series. Feels weird, did listen Friday and Sunday, watched Saturday.
Only 1631 showed up today? wow thats a shocker.
JB didn't have it on the mound, but came through with his bat, nice to see him rebounding this year.
Have been hard on Dew at times, but he had a huge hit and plays well in the field.
Still would like to see Macke and Arp get in the line-up somehow, Kennedy has really struggled in conference play, 3-14 this weekend or something of that nature, maybe give him a games rest Wednesday?
Anyhow nice to get 3/4. I'll be making the trip to Lansing. Its my brithplace and my father lives there so I make that trip every other year. Bucks should get at least 4 this week, counting CMU, with 5 being a real chance with how we're pitching and State struggling a bit out of the gates. Need to keep pace with Michigan until the series in May an try to settle it in AA.
We were going to go up,but the weather looks bad. Snow and rain all weekend.
Need to get Ryan Meade back in the lineup.I heard today he is really sick. Yes Kennedy does need a day off,he has cooled down a lot.Hurley has played great lately.
Nice to see Michigan finally lose in conference.Minn has a bad bullpen and that will hurt them this year.Still struggle at times to score runs.We need a legit HR hitter.Eric Best is getting it done late in games out of the pen.
Legit HR hitter? I've basically given up hope in seeing one of those in the program. Meade has potential to develop into a solid power hitter in the frame of Ronnie Bourquin, but we don't get the Recknagles, or even Swishers anymore.
Few questions...
1 Our bullpen is progressing, but does anyone, players, fans, BT, no what to expect from game to game or no who is in what role? Rucinski, Meister, Best? It appears Edgin is not a closer, nor SP and is in the long relief role, but who sets up, who closes? Heck I even forgot about Wimmers, that makes it more of a mess.
2 When JB does not bat (Sundays) our line-up appears to struggle. Any way to fix this?
3 Nice to see Hurley in there and getting it done, but will we still go with Toussant over Macke/Arp? What happens when Meade gets back?
4 How long do we keep Armstrong as our midweek guy?? This isn't as bad as it seems as CMU did just beat Michigan, and the following week we host Louisville, and quality starts will be needed. Just hope the young guy does not get discouraged by not being a weekend regular. He has the stuff... so does Wolo, DeLucia, Hale, Shuck. A good problem to have.
Not much to really feel bad about or speak down on, would have beennice to took 1 from PSU last Saturday, but there are worse things than 5-3 right now.
I think the bullpen is kinda working it self out.I think Best is the man in the 9th.Wimmers and Rucinski are good options.I guess Minium and Barrera are hurt. I don't know about their status at all.
I would like to see Strayer,Barnes and Hayes get a shot on Wed.'s down the line maybe? Don't know much about them.
Rory Meister must really be in the dog house.I was very suprised to see Edgin in gm. 1 saturday after Armstrong.I agree we have the best pitching depth in the conference.
Starting Toussant at DH yesterday had me confused too? Macke or Arp are better option's i think.
I feel beter now then i did last weekend of course.Hopefully we can take care of the Spartans on the road.
I know the coaching staff had planned at the start of the season to redshirt Theron Minium. As for Josh Barrera I think the coaches could be doing that as well, but I'm not certain. I thought early in the season they were just resting him from his injury late in 2007 and I fully expected to see him by now. I'll see what I can uncover.
Minium is being redshirted. Barrera has arm/shoulder problem still and last I heard it was still up in the air as to whether he would have surgery (and get a medical redshirt for the season) or have some other sort of therapy and try to play this year. That was a week ago and I would think by now a decision must have been made.
Agree with Bucks33 on the need to get a few other guys some innings in the mid-week games. The Bucks are one or two more physical "problems" from needing help from the rest of the staff. From what I see, though, the coaching staff gets pretty set in their ways regarding who gets playing time and who doesn't.
Thanks for the info guillermo.
That kinda hurts our bullpen depth with those 2 guys out, that was about 50 IP last yr from those 2 guys.I agree about the coaching staff being set with lineups and pitchers to use.Not much change even for the Wed. games.
Too bad about Barrera injures since he has been @ OSU.He can not seem to stay healthy .Always liked Josh on the hill.
bucks33.... Heard today that Josh is having surgery on his shoulder this coming Friday. I don't have any details of what type of surgery so no idea how long the recovery is to be. I just hope everything works out OK and he can get back on the mound as soon as possible. Obviously I would guess that surgery now knocks him out for the rest of this season and he will be able to get a medical redshirt.
Too bad to hear about Josh. Hopefully he can rehab and come back in '09 for the Bucks. Great kid and comes from a great family.
Good Luck Josh!
Does anyone realize that we LOST the Big Ten Pitcher of the Year, a 1st round draft pick who is already in High A, and still have a great and deep starting rotation.
That point for some reason really just hit me. Heck I really don't know what we would do if we still had Cory.
How many other programs can take a hit like that, and not miss a beat.
Yeah i was thinking about that the other day.Imagine if we had Luebke,Delucia,Hale and Shuck. What a rotation we would have.Oh boy!
The guy i miss from last year is Matt Angle,Great CF,base runner and hitter.I always like matt, Always played fast and hard.
Matt is with the Delmarva ( orioles)Shorebirds of the class A South Atlantic league.He has not played this year,hope all is well injury wise.
I'm actually listening to Delmarva's game right now. Losing 5-2 to the Captains of Lake County. Plan on heading up and catching Thursday nights game.
Matt is fine, well at least physically. He had a death in the family of late which is why he missed the opening series.
He would never make excuses but he is 0-3 with 3 k's in his debut tonight. I've never seen him get K'd 3 times in one series, let alone in 1 game. But its understandable, first game back, and mentally he is probably exhausted. Good family, hope they're doing well and he rebounds.
Also of note Fryer was assigned to extended spring training and well head back to Helena. Really wanted to see him play in WV with the Power, but the Brewers have other plans I guess.
Good info rocky
Great to hear Matt is ok.Sorry to hear about the death in the family .I have heard that ballpark in Lake County is nice.Me being a tribe fan i should make the trip some time.
I think Doug Pickins (UM)and Jeff Hehr (EM)are with Lake County this year. I was trying to find Fryer,i was hoping he did not get released this winter.He did struggle last summer at the plate.
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