Buckeye Baseball Beats Bishops, 9-1, in Home Opener – Ohio State Buckeyes
3/31/1999 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 31, 1999
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio State scored early and often in defeating the Ohio Wesleyan Bishops, 9-1, Wednesday afternoon before 785 at Bill Davis Stadium. The win improves OSUs record to 14-6.
The Buckeyes got on the board right off the bat, scoring once in the first inning on an RBI single by Jason Turner (Jr., Versailles, Ohio). They added to that lead with two more runs in the second. After Matt Middleton walked to open the inning, Bishops starting pitcher Scott Spriggs was removed the game. Relief pitcher Shawn Conn was greeted by John Mayor (So., Chesterfield, Mo.), who doubled to put runners on second and third. The next batter, Trent McIlvain (So., Louisville, Ohio), singled to drive in Middleton, making the score 2-0. OSU made it 3-0 when Mike Lockwood (Jr., Powell, Ohio) chopped a single into left field driving in Mayor.
Ohio State added to its lead in the third. Turner and Jason Driscoll (Jr., Middlefield, Ohio) opened the inning with back-to-back singles. One out later, Mayor dumped a double along the rightfield line to score Turner to make the score 4-0. McIlvain then grounded out to shortstop, scoring Mayor.
Ohio Wesleyan cut into the Buckeye lead in its half of the sixth when Jason Bogenrife knocked in Jay Hebert to make it 5-1.
OSU busted it open in the sixth with a little help from the Pioneers. With one out, and runners on second and third, Turner hit a groundball back to pitcher Kyle Stanton, who threw behind Jason Trott (Sr., Dublin, Ohio) and caught him in a rundown. Trott broke for the plate, but third baseman Paul Lashuks throw to home hit Trott in the back and caromed towards the Ohio Wesleyan dugout. On the play, Trott and Chad Ehrnsberger (So., Kalida, Ohio) came in to score and Turner advanced to second. After a wild pitch advanced Turner to third, Driscoll followed with a sacrifice fly to left, scoring Turner to make the score 8-1. The next batter was Middleton, who proceeded to tee off on a Stanton pitch and deposit it over the wall in left-centerfield for his first homer of the season. Middletons blast made it 9-1.
Brandon Steen (Fr., Hendersonville, Tenn.) pitched three innings of relief for the victory, his first of the season. Kevin Goodrum (So., Mentor, Ohio) started and pitched four hitless innings. Nate Smith (Fr., Bryan, Ohio) pitched the final two innings of the game, striking out five Bishop batters.
Ohio State returns to the diamond Friday when they open up Big Ten play against Northwestern at 6:35 p.m.
