Baseball Rallies With Four Runs in the Eighth Inning to Beat Purdue, 9-8 – Ohio State Buckeyes
5/19/2000 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 19, 2000%^$%^$
%^$%^$Box Score%^$%^$%^$%^$
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – %^$Led by a four-run rally with two outs in the eighth inning, the Ohio State baseball team (37-22 overall) defeated the Purdue Boilermakers (35-23 overall), 9-8, at Siebert Field. With the win, the Buckeyes improve to 2-1 and eliminate the Boilermakers from the 2000 Big Ten Baseball Tournament. OSU is now one of three teams remaining in the double-elimination tournament, with two games scheduled for tomorrow. The Illinois Fighting Illini (2-0) will face the Penn State Nittany Lions (2-1) at 1 p.m. Regardless of the outcome, the Buckeyes will face the Fighting Illini at 8 p.m. If Illinois defeats Penn State, the OSU vs. UI game will be for the Big Ten Tournament Championship (OSU would still have to defeat UI twice because of the double-elimination format). If Penn State defeats Illinois, then the OSU vs. UI contest becomes an elimination game with the winner moving on to Sunday’s championship game against PSU.%^$
%^$The scoring began in the bottom half of the first inning for the Buckeyes. With one out, Mike Check (Jr., Bay Village, Ohio) reached base on an infield single. Big Ten Freshman of the Year Nick Swisher (Fr., Parkersburg, W.Va.) immediately followed with a single to the left field alley to push Check to third base. OSU then scored its first run of the ballgame when Jason Turner (Sr., Versailles, Ohio) plated Check on a grounder to Purdue first baseman Kris Luce to give the Buckeyes a 1-0 lead.%^$
%^$In the bottom of the third inning, Turner led off and blasted a 2-1 offering from Purdue starting pitcher Russ Morgan over the right field wall for his league leading 17th home run of the season. Turner’s season home run total ties him for the fourth most in OSU single-season history.%^$
%^$The Ohio State offense continued to attack in the bottom half of the fifth inning. With one out and Jason Driscoll (Sr., Middlefield, Ohio) and Check on first and second base, respectively, Swisher hammered the first pitch offered by Purdue relief pitcher Chadd Blasko over the center field wall for a three-run home run. The blast was Swisher’s 10th of the season and tied the OSU freshman record set by Dan Seimetz in 1995.%^$
%^$In the top of the sixth inning, Purdue scored its first run of the ballgame on a two-out, one-run double by David Blomberg to cut the OSU lead to 5-1.%^$
%^$In the top of the seventh inning, Purdue rallied to tie the game at five. Daniel Underwood hit a two-run double, Chris Walker added a one-run single and Blomberg followed with one-run double to give the Boilermakers its fourth run of the ballgame.%^$
%^$Purdue broke the tie in the top of the eighth inning. Nate Sickler scored on a sacrifice bunt by Underwood. Daryl Hallada later scored when Mike Duursma was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded from OSU reliever Cory Cox (Jr., Chillicothe, Ohio). The two runs gave the Boilermakers a 7-5 lead.%^$
%^$In the top of bottom of the eighth inning, the Buckeyes rallied to retake the lead. Driscoll and Check led off with back-to-back hits. Two outs later, pinch-hitter Chad Ehrnsberger (Jr., Kalida, Ohio) belted a double to the right field alley to clear the bases and tie the game at seven. The two-out rally continued when pinch-hitter Doug Dendinger (So., Greenwich, Ohio) reached base on a walk. Lance Rolston (Fr., Athens, Ohio) followed and laced a single to center field to bring home Ehrnsberger. McIlvain immediately followed with a one-run single to score Dendinger and give OSU a 9-7 edge.%^$
%^$In the top of the ninth inning, Purdue responded with more offense. Hallada hit a one-run single to cut the OSU lead to 9-8. But the Buckeyes squashed the rally and thus advance to the next round.%^$
%^$Both starting pitchers did not factor into the decision. OSU’s Greg Prenger (Fr., Harpster, Ohio) retired the first nine batters he faced but ran into trouble in the seventh inning. The righthander went 6.2 innings, threw 100 pitches, gave up six hits, five runs, two earned runs and struck out a batter. Cox (6-4) was the winner after going 2.1 innings, giving up five hits, three runs, two earned runs and recording two strikeouts. Morgan went just 2.2 innings, gave up two runs and walked one batter. Jeremy Ballard (7-3) took the loss for Purdue.
