Baseball Splits a Doubleheader With Penn State After a 4-1 Loss – Ohio State Buckeyes
5/7/2000 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 7, 2000%^$%^$
%^$%^$Box Score%^$%^$%^$%^$
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – %^$After taking the first two games of a four-game series, the Ohio State baseball team (32-19 overall, 12-11 in the Big Ten) lost the backend of a doubleheader to the Penn State Nittany Lions (36-11 overall, 16-6 in the Big Ten), 4-1 in front of 1,073 at Beaver Field. The Buckeyes split the doubleheader and now have a 2-1 edge in the series with one game remaining.%^$
%^$”Penn State is a good ballclub and there is a reason why they were in first place before this weekend,” head coach Bob Todd said. “I give them a lot of credit for fighting back and splitting the doubleheader against us. We did some really good things in game one. Kevin Goodrum made some key pitches and the offense came through with a couple of big innings. In game two, we never got untracked and didn’t get the big inning we needed to win the game.”%^$
%^$Penn State took a 1-0 lead via an unearned run in the bottom of the second inning. With two outs, Joe Puliafico singled to left field with Donnie Wright on first base. On the play, OSU leftfielder Jason Driscoll (Sr., Middlefield, Ohio) misplayed the ball attempting to field it on the hop and an alert Wright was able to score on the error.%^$
%^$PSU added another run in the bottom of the third inning on a one-run single by Shawn Fagan to take a 2-0 lead.%^$
%^$The Buckeyes reached the scoreboard in the top of the fourth inning. Mike Check (Jr., Bay Village, Ohio) led off with a bunt single. He quickly moved to second base on a walk by Chad Ehrnsberger (Jr., Kalida, Ohio) off PSU starting pitcher Don McCall. Two batters later, John Mayor (Jr., Chesterfield, Mo.) sent a grounder that was misplayed by PSU second baseman Eric Spadt. The error allowed Check to score from second base and cut the Penn State lead to 2-1.%^$
%^$The Nittany Lions added two more runs in the bottom of the fifth inning. John Richmond drove in the first run on a single and Shawn Fagan drove in the second on a groundout to increase the PSU lead to 4-1.%^$
%^$OSU starting pitcher Greg Prenger (Fr., Harpster, Ohio) pitched well but took the loss. His record falls to 4-2. He tossed his second consecutive complete game, threw 95 pitches, gave up eight hits, four runs (three earned) and struck out a pair. McCall (4-0) also threw a complete game and gave up just three hits.%^$
%^$Tomorrow, the two teams will play the series finale at 1 p.m.
