Chad Ehrnsberger Belts His Seventh Home Run of the Season to Lead OSU Over Vermont, 6-4 – Ohio State Buckeyes
3/23/2000 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 23, 2000
Box Score
HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Ohio State All-American Chad Ehrnsberger (Jr., Kalida, Ohio) decided to make an early mark on today’s game against Vermont with a two-run first inning home run to help lead the OSU baseball team (14-6 overall) over the Catamounts (4-5 overall), 6-4. The Buckeyes are now 2-0 at the Homestead Challenge. With the blast, Ehrnsberger becomes just the ninth player in OSU history to hit at least 30 career home runs.
“He gave me a good pitch to hit and I took it,” Ehrnsberger said. “We have a lot of season left to play so I’m not even thinking about records or anything like that. We won today but played extremely sloppy.”
Thanks to the home run, the Buckeyes took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning. Mike Check (Jr., Bay Village, Ohio) was hit on the very first pitch of the game thrown by Vermont starter Trevor Marcotte. Two batters later, Ehrnsberger smashed a 2-2 offering from Marcotte over the leftfield wall to give OSU an early lead.
OSU increased its lead in the top of the fifth inning. Rob Boling (Fr., Hamilton, Ohio) led off with a single down the rightfield line. Check followed with a bunt single and a throwing error by Marcotte allowed Boling to score and advanced Check to second base. John Mayor (Jr., Chesterfield, Mo.) then reached base when UV shortstop Scott Bourhill fielded a grounder and threw the ball into the dirt at first base. Ehrnsberger followed with a walk to load the bases. Jason Turner (Sr., Versailles, Ohio) then flied out to UV centerfielder Wade Rikert to score Check. OSU added its final run of the inning when Ehrnsberger stole second but Bourhill couldn’t handle the throw from catcher Bob Acabbo which allowed Check to score and increase OSU’s lead, 5-0. In the bottom of the sixth inning, the Catamounts cut the OSU lead to 5-3 with three runs on five hits. Michael Cole had a RBI single, Bourhill added a RBI double and Bob Acabbo drove in a run on a ground out. In the bottom of the seventh inning, Acabbo scored Kyle Rikert on a sacrifice fly to cut the OSU lead, 5-4. But that would be the closest they would get to taking the lead.
The Buckeyes added an insurance run in the top of the eighth. Boling singled home Doug Dendinger (So., Greenwich, Ohio) to give OSU a 6-4 lead.
On the mound, Nate Smith (So., Bryan, Ohio) went 6.1 innings, threw 99 pitches, gave up 10 hits, four runs, three earned runs, walked two and struck out one. He improves to 2-1 for the season. In relief, Greg Prenger (Fr., Harpster, Ohio) continues to pitch well. The redshirt freshmen went 2.2 innings, struck out four and gave up just one hit to earn the first save of his career.
Tomorrow, the Buckeyes continue through the Homestead Challenge with a game at 7 p.m. against the winner of tonight’s Kansas State vs. Central Connecticut State contest.
