Baseball Wins the Winthrop Stateline Classic Championship – Ohio State Buckeyes
3/12/2000 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 12, 2000
Box Score
FORT MILL, S.C. – The Ohio State baseball team (9-3 overall) won its second tournament of the season with its 7-6 win over Winthrop (12-8) at the Winthrop Stateline Classic. Trent McIlvain (Jr., Louisville, Ohio) drove in three runs and Kevin Wynk (Fr., Coldwater, Ohio) recorded his first collegiate win to help lead OSU. The Buckeyes finished the tournament with a 3-1 record.
“It’s a positive step forward anytime you can go on the road and win a tournament,” head coach Bob Todd said. “But we have yet to play our best baseball and this team is s very capable of much more. We did some nice things in the middle innings to get ahead and we had some guys step up when we needed them to.”
The Eagle took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning on a two-run home run by Todd Leathers.
In the top of the second inning, OSU added its first run of the game on a two out, RBI single by McIlvain to score Nick Swisher (Fr., Parkersburg, W.Va.).
The Buckeyes then took their first lead of the afternoon in the top of the fourth inning. Joe Wilkins (So., Grove City, Ohio) led off with a bunt single. He then moved to third on a two-base throwing error by Winthrop pitcher Jeremy Herauf on a failed pick off attempt. Doug Dendinger (So., Greenwich, Ohio) immediately drove home Wilkins with a single to rightfield. Two batters later, Dendinger scored on a ground out by McIlvain to give OSU a 3-2 lead.
In the top of the fifth inning OSU tacked on four more runs. Swisher led off by taking a 3-1 offering from Winthrop reliever Jeff Reeves over the rightfield wall for his second home run of the season. Wilkins followed with a walk and moved to third on a double by Dendinger. Wilkins later scored and Dendinger moved to third on a groundout by Marcello Garofalo (Worthington, Ohio). McIlvain then executed a perfect squeeze bunt down the first base line to score Dendinger. With two outs, Mike Check (Jr., Bay Village, Ohio) doubled down the leftfield line and later scored on a RBI single by John Mayor. OSU starting pitcher Nate Smith (So., Bryan Ohio) did not factor into the decision. He went 4.1 innings, threw 94 pitches, gave up four hits, two runs, walked three and struck out four. He left the game in the bottom of the fifth inning with the bases loaded and one out. But in relief, Wynk got out of the jam by getting Conrad Funk to ground into an inning ending double play.
Winthrop attempted to rally in the seventh and eighth innings. In the seventh, the Eagle scored an unearned run on Wynk to cut the OSU lead 7-3. In the eighth, a two-run double by Jordan Webb and a RBI sacrifice fly by Todd Leathers cut the OSU lead 7-6.
In the ninth inning, stopper Cory Cox (Jr, Chillicothe, Ohio) retired the side to earn his third save of the season. Wynk (1-0) earned his first collegiate win by totaling 2.1 innings in relief, throwing 49 pitches, giving up an unearned run, a hit and striking out three. Winthrop’s Herauf saw his record drop to 2-3 with the loss.
Next weekend, the Buckeyes will travel to College Station, Texas for the Aggie/Continental Airlines Classic.
