Buckeyes Win a Four Hour, 14-Inning Marathon Over Marshall, 10-7 – Ohio State Buckeyes
3/10/2000 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 10, 2000%^$%^$
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Ft. Mill, S.C. – With two outs in the top of the 14th inning, Jason Turner (Sr., Versailles, Ohio) singled home John Mayor (Jr., Chesterfield, Mo.) to lead the Ohio State baseball team (7-2 overall) over the Marshall Thundering Herd (5-5 overall), 10-7 in game one of the Winthrop Stateline Classic.%^$
%^$”We showed a lot of resiliency today against a scrappy team,” Turner said. “We should have put them away earlier and it almost cost us. But everyone played together and we gutted out the win.”%^$
%^$OSU added a pair of insurance run after Turner’s clutch hit. Nick Swisher (Fr., Parkersburg, W.Va.) drove home Chad Ehrnsberger (Sr., Kalida, Ohio) and Turner scored on a fielding error by MU third baseman Matt White. Relief pitcher Cory Cox (Jr., Chillitcothe, Ohio) earned the win with career-high six innings of work and improved to 1-0 on the year. He gave up seven hits, two runs, struck out two and threw 87 pitches.%^$
%^$”Cory (Cox) kept his poise in the late innings and we were able to come back,” head coach Bob Todd said. “We can play a lot better and have yet to play our best baseball. But this team didn’t quit and they deserve a lot of credit for that.”%^$
%^$The Buckeyes opened on a positive note when they took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning thanks to an error by Marshall rightfielder Jason Brooks. With two outs and Ehrnsberger on first base, Turner lifted a fly ball to shallow rightfield that was mishandled by Brooks. The error allowed Ehrnsberger to score and gave OSU an early 1-0 lead. But in the bottom half the inning, Brooks quickly atoned for his error with a two-run home run to give the Thundering Herd a 2-1 lead.%^$
%^$In the top of the second inning, OSU added a run to tie the game at two. With two outs, Chris Alvord (Jr., Mentor, Ohio) lined a single to right-centerfield. He immediately moved to second on an infield single by Mike Check (Jr., Bay Village, Ohio). Alvord then scored on a RBI single to centefield by John Mayor. In the bottom half of the inning, Marshall tacked on two runs on Jason Ricceri’s RBI double and Matt Eldridge’s RBI single. The runs gave the Herd a 4-2 lead.%^$
%^$In the bottom of the third inning, Marshall increased its lead to 5-2 when Ryan Kobbe hit a sacrifice fly to score Brooks.%^$
%^$The Buckeyes cut the MU lead to 5-4 in the top of the sixth inning. With two outs, Mayor reached base when he was hit by a pitch from Marshall reliever Rustyn Lee. He then scored on a double by Ehrnsberger. Turner singled to rightfield to drive in Ehrnsberger%^$
%^$In the top of the seventh inning the Buckeyes rallied to take a 7-5 lead. With one out, Marcello Garofalo (Sr., Worthington, Ohio) reached base on a throwing error by the shortstop Ricceri. Two batters later, Alvord walked to put runners on first and second. With two outs, Check dropped a single to rightfield to score Alvord. Mayor than cleared the bases with a two-run double to give OSU its second lead of the afternoon.%^$
%^$But the Herd refused to go away quietly. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Marshall rallied to tie the game on RBI singles by Martry Rini and Ryan Kobbe off OSU reliever Cory Cox (Jr., Chillicothe, Ohio). The runs were the first given up this season by Cox and the outing marked his first blown save opportunity (2-of-3) this season.%^$
%^$OSU starting pitcher Kevin Goodrum (Jr., Mentor, Ohio) did not factor in the decision. The lefty went 6.2 innings, tossed 119 pitches, gave up seven hits, five runs and struck out six. MU reliever Steve Fowler (1-1) took the loss.%^$
%^$”When I entered the game with the lead, I didn’t do my job and I let them back into the game,” Cox said. “But the team rallied and we did the things we had to do to win the game.”%^$
%^$The Buckeyes return to the field for a pair of games tomorrow. At 11 a.m., OSU plays Fairfield and at 3 p.m., the Buckeyes face the host school Winthrop.
