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Saturday, May 17, 2008

Our Honor Defend

We can say that now that Ohio State finished the season with a 9-7 victory at Iowa Saturday that clinched a spot in the Big Ten tournament, where it will try to defend last year's championship run (Box Score). It is a conference-record 12th consecutive appearance in the tourney for Ohio State which is in for the 20th time in 21 years under head coach Bob Todd.

Big Ten Network Video

The win gave the Buckeyes a 15-15 league record. All 21 of coach Todd's team's have .500 or better records in the Big Ten. It also was the 30th win of the season for the Buckeyes. Todd's teams have won at least 30 games in 23 consecutive seasons.

Jumping out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning, the Ohio State offense was aggressive. Iowa got on the board with one in the fourth but the Buckeyes added four more in the fifth for an 8-1 lead. Ohio State managed one more run the rest of the way and had to withstand a furious comeback by Iowa, which score four runs in the final two innings to make it close.

OSU starter J.B. Shuck was as aggressive, scattering five hits and finishing with nine strikeouts in his 7.0 innings. Iowa scored three against Shuck, who won for the 17th time as a Buckeye Saturday. Alex Wimmers and Drew Rucinski struggled in relief until handing the reins over to Eric Best, who picked up his eighth save of the season.

Offensively, Justin Miller led all Buckeyes with three hits, while Cory Rupert (two doubles), Michael Arp and Tyler Engle had two hits each. Rupert and Arp had a pair of RBI apiece.

2 comments:

BaseballBucks33 said...

Buckeyes beat Iowa 9-7 to earn a berth in the Big Ten tourny. OSU finished 15-15 in league play.

JB Shuck got the win going 7 ip,1 BB,9 K

Eric Best gets his 8th save this season.

ILL 1-0 over Purdue in the 3rd.

Just heard on the BTN we might play Illinois.

highheat88 said...

I was at the game yesterday and I am still trying to figure out the coaching staff.
As usual all the pitchers who had not thrown went to the bullpen in the sixth inning to throw their pens.
In the top of the eight Wimmers started to throw, and then was put in to pitch with a very brief warm-up. His results showed he was not ready. Then Rucinski was put into the game after he had already finished his pen and sat for twenty minutes.
How can our bullpen succeed when we put in a pitcher who has not had time to properly warm-up, and then replace him with a pitcher who has already thrown a complete games worth of pitches?