Baseball Clips Hawkeyes in Pitchers’ Duel, 2-1 – Ohio State Buckeyes
3/31/2000 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 31, 2000
Box Score
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Pitching headlined the opening night of the Big Ten baseball season for the Ohio State baseball team (17-7 overall, 1-0 in the Big Ten) as Preseason All-American E.J. Laratta (So., Englewood, Colo.) dueled Iowa’s Matt Hasz to a 2-1 win in front of 2,190 at Bill Davis Stadium.
“This is what playing in the Big Ten is all about,” head coach Bob Todd said. “Every game is going to go down to the wire and whichever team executes better is going to win. Both pitchers were tremendous tonight.”
Laratta (4-2) was in midseason form as he went the distance, throwing 127 pitches, giving up six hits and one run while striking out a career high 11 batters. The freshman Hasz (0-2) was just as impressive on the mound, tossing 120 pitches while giving up just three hits and a pair of runs in a complete-game effort. Both pitchers had complete control, as the game lasted just an hour and 51 minutes.
“I felt really good out there tonight,” Laratta said. “I had good control of my stuff and it’s always good to pitch at home.”
The Hawkeyes (6-17, 1-4) took an early 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning. With two outs, Mike Thompson dropped a single down the leftfield line, scoring Alex Dvorsky to give Iowa the first lead of the ballgame.
In the bottom half of the fifth inning, the Buckeyes rallied to take the lead, doing all their damage with two outs. Jason Driscoll (Sr., Middlefield, Ohio) started the rally by drilling a ball off Iowa third baseman Ian Mattiace’s glove – OSU’s first hit of the game. Nick Swisher (Fr., Parkersburg, W.Va.) immediately followed with a walk and Chris Alvord (Jr., Mentor, Ohio) then lined a single to rightfield to score Driscoll and tie the game at one. The hit parade continued when Mike Check (Jr., Bay Villlage, Ohio) lined a single to rightfield to score Swisher and give OSU a 2-1 lead which the Buckeyes would not relinquish.
Saturday, the Buckeyes and Hawkeyes return to action, battling in a doubleheader at 4:05 p.m. at Bill Davis Stadium.
