Baseball’s Offense Comes to Life as the Buckeyes Defeat Kansas State, 8-4 – Ohio State Buckeyes
3/24/2000 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 24, 2000
Box Score
HOMESTEAD, Fla. – The Ohio State baseball team’s (15-6 overall) offense came to life with 13 hits as the Buckeyes defeated Kansas State (6-15 overall), 8-4 and improved to 3-0 at the Homestead Challenge. With the win, OSU advances to tomorrow’s championship game against Northwestern. The Buckeyes, winners of last year’s tournament, will attempt to become the first team in the history of the Homestead Challenge to successfully defend the championship.
“Our offense has been struggling lately so its good to see them put together a good ballgame,” head coach Bob Todd said. “The top of the order got on base, Jason Driscoll had some big hits and the four pitchers we used made great pitches when we needed them to.”
The Buckeyes took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. Mike Check (Jr., Bay Village, Ohio) took the very first pitch offered by K-State starting pitcher Luke Robertson into centerfield for a leadoff single. He then moved to second on a ground out by Rob Boling (Fr., Hamilton, Ohio). Chad Ehrnsberger (Jr., Kalida, Ohio) followed with a single to leftfield to move Check over to third base. Cleanup hitter Jason Turner (Sr., Versailles, Ohio) then drove in Check with a sacrifice fly to leftfield to give OSU its first lead of the game. OSU starting pitcher Kevin Goodrum (Jr., Mentor, Ohio) came out of the gates throwing some heat by striking out the side in the bottom half of the inning.
The hit parade continued for OSU in the top of the second inning. With one out, Doug Dendinger (So., Greenwich, Ohio) lined his first career triple into the rightfield alley. He immediately scored on a single up the middle by Trent McIlvain (Jr., Louisville, Ohio). Jason Driscoll (Sr., Middlefield, Ohio) then followed with a triple of his own, this one down the first base line. Check then doubled down the third base line to score Driscoll and give OSU a 4-0 lead. In the bottom half of the inning, lead off hitter Mark English took a 0-2 offering from Goodrum over the rightfield wall to cut the OSU lead to 4-1. K-State added another run when Graham McAllister walked with the bases loaded to score Pat Maloney and cut the OSU lead, 5-2. In the top of the fourth inning, OSU increased its lead to 5-2. Driscoll led off with his second triple of the evening, this time over the head of K-State centerfielder Chris Nelson. Check followed with a sacrifice fly to rightfield for his second RBI of the game.
The Buckeyes added a pair of runs in the top of the seventh inning. Turner reached base on a fielding error by K-State shortstop J. D. Loudabarger. Three batters later, he scored on a sacrifice fly by Dendinger. Then with two outs, McIlvain then singled to shallow centerfield and a throwing error by K-State third baseman Josh Cavender allowed Joe Wilkins (So, Grove City, Ohio), who reached base on a walk, to score from first base and give OSU a 7-2 lead.
K-State’s last major threat came in the bottom half of the seventh inning. With one out, the Wildcats loaded the bases on Goodrum. Coach Todd then made the move to the bullpen and called Kyle Brown (Fr., Washington Court House, Ohio) into the game who proceeded to strike out K-State cleanup hitter Mark English. Todd then called upon reliever Kevin Wynk (Fr., Coldwater, Ohio) to finish the inning. A passed ball by Wilkins allowed a run to score but Wynk eventually struck out the only batter he faced that inning, Pat Maloney, to end the K-State threat.
OSU added its final run in the top of the ninth inning on a RBI single by Check, his third of the game.
Goodrum improved his season record to 3-1. He went 6.1 innings, threw 101 pitches, gave up eight hits, three runs, two earned runs and struck out four. Cory Cox (Jr., Chillicothe, Ohio) pitched the final 1.2 innings to earn his fourth save of the year. Robertson (1-5) was the losing pitcher.
Tomorrow, the Buckeyes face Northwestern in the Homestead Challenge Championship game at 7 p.m.
