Ohio State scored five runs in the fourth inning and held on for a 5-4 victory over Michigan State in game one of Sunday's doubleheader (box score). In the second game, Michigan State scored the game's only run in the eighth inning on a bases loaded walk to force a doubleheader split and avoid a three-game series sweep by Ohio State (box score). The Buckeyes needed 11 innings to claim a 5-4 victory on Friday.
Dean Wolosiansky got the start in game one, giving Dan DeLucia the weekend off to rest his elbow. Wolo was touched for two runs on seven hits in 4.2 innings of work before getting replaced by Andrew Armstrong who allowed two runs in his 1.1 innings. Eric Best pitched the seventh and retired the batters in order to pick up his second save of the weekend and his fourth fo the season.
Shuck was the only Buckeye with multiple hits in a 3-for-4 peformance. He had one RBI. Zach Hurley, Ryan Dew, Dan Burkhart and Tyler Engle drove in the other runs. Each team had nine hits. Ohio State committed the game's only error.
Shuck was the starter in the second game of the twinbill and was cruising along nice, though was not backed by any offense. The Buckeyes managed just two hits, one by Tony Kennedy and another by Ryan Dew.
Michigan State finally wore on Shuck in the eighth, getting two of their four hits in the inning. He allowed a single to start the inning before getting that runner on a fielder's choice bunt. He issued a walk and gave up a bunt single to load the bases before giving way to freshman Alex Wimmers. Wimmers struck out his first batter before walking in the decisive run.
Shuck was saddled with an unfortunate loss to fall to 4-2 on the year. He struck out seven against three walks, including one in the eighth.
A conference rule is in place to not allow a team to start three games in one day so the fourth game of the series was cancelled and will not be made up.
The Buckeyes are now 18-11 overall and 7-4 in the Big Ten, while Michigan State is 13-16 and 4-7. Ohio State will host Louisville Wednesday at 6:35 p.m. at Bill Davis Stadium. The Cardinals advanced to the College World Series last season.
9 comments:
Play ball! Bucks to play 2 today vs. MSU!
Dean W on hill for game 1, and JB Shuck will pitch gm.2. Another week of rest for Delucia.
Go Bucks!
Bucks with a nice 5 spot in the 4th inning. 5 runs,6 hits. Cool to see Hurley staying hot.
PSU up 5-2 in the 4th over Purdue. Michigan-Illinois just underway.
Let's go Bucks!
JB Shuck is pitching a master piece and we have 1 stinking hit. Come on guys. Score a run for your pitcher.Gee whiz. Only have had 2 runners at 2nd base all game. JB with a no-hitter till 5 inning. 7K,2BB
Game 2 was more than frustrating. JB lost a game that the Bucks should have cruised to a victory in. JB pitched a hell of a game, and on the other side so did Cullen for MSU.
Oh btw the MSU hitter Roof in the bottom of the 9th was screwed by the ump. First pitch Wimmers threw Roof ripped for an obvious gamewinning GS. Cleared the foul pole easily, but hey as a Buckeye I wasn't complaining.
Theres many more thoughts on this, and some pictures. Just off to shower and have dinner with the family before heading back to Columbus.
Tough loss.Hurts in the standings.
JB pitched great and got no help from the bats at all.I know JB is sour tonight. I also thought Todd should have left JB in with the bases loaded. I would have NOT had Wimmers come in. Not to bash Alex,but Shuck is a jr. and should be given the opportunity to get out of the inning. Maybe Eric Best but not a true Fr. Just my 2 cents.
The offensive really struggled today.I bet we had 12 or so flyball outs and not many hard hit balls.Our AB sometimes drive me nuts.We work the counts to 3-1,3-2 then swing at ball 4.
Justin Miller had a chance in the 4th and the 6th to drive in runs.Last yr. Miller drives those runs in last yr.We need a upperclass man to step with a hit with RISP. I don't know our stat with that,but i bet you it is really bad.
I will quit complaining, but some series you need to sweep.I care too much about this program for us to be just average.
Actually there were quite a few ropes and rockets the Bucks had. Every at bat save his last Burkhart had he ripped and made good contact, just right to a Spartan player. Same with Hurley, TK, and Kovanda.
And not to add up excuses but this was the 2 worst umpired games ever. I've been critical on the Bucks in the past, and 2 hit is inexusable, but wow these games were bad, on both sides.
I kinda take issue with Todd leaving Arp, Macke, and B. DeLucia on the ebnch all game 2, especially when all but 1 inning in game 1 you did nothing offensively.
Yeah, i was shocked Todd did not use a PH in game 2 too.I guess coach knows the guys better than i do. Just a real bad loss and a wasted pitching outing by Shuck.
I really feel we could be 9-2 or 8-3.This weekend vs. Purdue is huge. I hope the guys come ready to play vs. Louisville.This could be a big win for a midweek game. U-L plays IU Tuesday.
What do you think about Rory? Here is a senior that pitched 45 Ip last yr and has 6 Ip this season. I know the Frosh. have stepped up but i would think he still could pitch somewhere from the pen.You can never have a strong enough pen.I wounder what is up?
bucks33.....Funny, I was wondering about Rory also. I know a couple of the freshmen have performed pretty well but I can't believe that Rory has totally lost his ability to pitch in relief. BT was all over him in FL about his outing vs. Harvard and maybe he is still in the doghouse. If that is the case then BT needs to get over it. I seriously doubt that Rory could have done any worse than Wimmers on Sunday. From what Rocky said above, it sounds like Alex almost gave up a grand slam just before walking in the wining run. I don't know if BT gave AW hell over it but my guess is that if Rory had done it he would never see the mound again in his OSU career.
Yeah it was pretty bad. First pitch fastball down the middle, gone, game-winning GS... minus the fact the umpiring crew was horrible, hey it gave the Bucks another chance, but it would have been very very bad for MSU to lose a game after obviously winning it.
In all honesty, the worst part about Wimmers coming in wasn't the mis-called shot, but the fact that after striking Roof out, he walked in the game winning run on 4 straight pitches. I mean that is unacceptable. Ok getting behind 2-0 fine, eh 3-0 not goo but whatever, but to not be able to throw 1 strike there is a cause for concern.
No idea whats going on with Rory.
Meade has not been himself since coming back sick. Its hard to take Hurley out right now, and Dew was the hero Friday night so you give him a few more AB's, but there were things BT could have done to the line-up, gave Burk a rest, put Miller at C, Meade at 1st, DH Arp/Macke, throw Macke at 1st, DH Arp/DeLucia.
Moving forward...
We have 8 conference games before the trip to AA. Really can't expect Sparty to take one from them this weekend, so at 3.5 back, its pretty important we buckle down and actually get a sweep.
Looking back we're pretty fortunate to get 2/3 in Lansing. 2 extra inning games, all 3 games decided by 1 run. Time to shuffle the line-up again, need things to get going.
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