Ohio State Baseball is Victorious – Ohio State Buckeyes
4/22/1998 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 22, 1998
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio State baseball team rode the strength of a two-hit, four RBI performance of All-American Dan Seimetz (Sr., Massillon, Ohio) en route to a 10-4 non-conference victory over West Virginia at Bill Davis Stadium Wednesday evening.
In Ohio State’s first at-bat, Mike Lockwood (So., Powell, Ohio) led off by reaching first when he was was hit by a pitch and stole second. Seimetz sent a fly ball deep to center field to advance Lockwood to third, who scored when Mike Kremblas (Sr., Carroll, Ohio) rolled a ball down the third base line and stayed fair. Jason Trott (Jr., Dublin, Ohio) followed with a single to left center field that scored Kremblas, who had walked, for a 2-0 lead.
The Mountainers took a 3-2 lead in the top of the second when OSU starter Kevin Goodrum (Fr., Mentor, Ohio) was roughed up by five West Virginia hits. Joe McNamee doubled to lead off the inning and and scored when Eddie Weightman singled to left. Bob Spangler singled to right, moving Weightman to third and then proceeded to steal second. Jack Smarslak then hit a bloop single to center to bring in Weightman and Spangler scored on Jamie Hammond’s single to right.
With two outs in the top of the third, McNamee put the Mountaineers up by two, pounding his 10th home run of the year to right field. Chad Ehrnsberger (Fr., Kalida, Ohio) took back one run in the bottom of the fourth when he homered to left field.
Ohio State took the lead for good in the bottom of the fifth, due largely in part to Seimetz’s eleventh homerun of the year – a three run, line drive shot hit well over the right field wall. Lockwood and Mark Carek (Sr., Bowling Green, Ohio), who had just driven in Trent McIlvain (Fr., Louisville, Ohio) with a single to left, scored on Seimetz’s dinger to give OSU a 7-4 advantage.
The homerun also prompted a pitching change by the Mountaineers. Dan Cisneros entered the game for WVU and went on to strike out three consecutive Buckeyes. Ohio State picked up some insurance runs in its half of the eighth when WVU reliever Ryan Oswald walked four straight batters, eventually forcing in John Mayor (Fr., Chesterfield, Mo.). Dan Zabloudil (So., Newark, Oho) then scored on a wild pitch before Seimetz picked up his fourth RBI of the night, singling home Lockwood.
Goodrum was relieved after three innings of work, and Buckeye hurlers Andy Lee (Jr., West Chester, Ohio), Mike Stafford (Sr., Canton, Mich.), and Eric Thompson (Jr., Fairborn, Ohio) combined to pitch six innings of one-hit, no-run baseball.
Lee picked up the win for OSU, improving his record to 7-2 overall.
Ohio State will attempt to hold on to first place in the Big Ten standings when it travels to Penn State this weekend for a four-game series.
