Baseball Loses to No. 25 Wichita State in the Bottom of the Ninth – Ohio State Buckeyes
2/24/2001 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Feb. 24, 2001
Box Score
LAFAYETTE, La. – Day two of The 2001 Mardi Gras Ball saw the Ohio State baseball team (0-2 overall) lose to No. 25 Wichita State (4-1), 6-5 in the bottom of the ninth inning. Mike Check (Sr., Bay Village, Ohio) went 3-for-5 and Doug Dendinger (Jr., Greenwich, Ohio) went 2-for-4 with two runs batted in.
“We swung the bats and played better defense today,” head coach Bob Todd said. “But we’ve got to make some more plays. We were better today than yesterday and we’ll have to play better tomorrow.”
With the game tied at five in the bottom of the ninth inning, Randy Walter drove in the winning run with a single to left field off OSU reliever Josh Newman (Fr., Wheelersburg, Ohio). Newman pitched the ninth and took the loss.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, Wichita State threatened with the bases loaded and nobody out. But the OSU defense and starting pitcher Kevin Goodrum (Sr., Mentor, Ohio) came alive by forcing Eric Absher to ground into a double play forcing out a run at the plate in the process. Brandon Green immediately followed and struck out looking to kill the potential rally.
In the top of the seventh inning, the Buckeyes took the first lead of the ballgame. John Mayor (Sr. Chesterfield, Mo.) led off with a single to right field. He quickly advanced to second base on a sacrifice bunt by Brett Garrard (Fr., Brownsburg, Ind.). Mayor then advanced to third base on a single by Chris Alvord (Sr., Mentor, Ohio) to left field. Mike Harris (Sr., Hillsborough, N.C.) immediately followed with an infield single to score Mayor and give OSU the first run of the game. Two batters later, Alvord scored on a single by Nick Swisher (So., Parkersburg, W.Va.). Doug Deeds (Fr., Bexley, Ohio) followed and reached base on a fielding error by WSU relief pitcher David Sanders to allow Harris to score. Dendinger kept the offense moving with a triple to center field to score Swisher and Deeds and give OSU a 5-0 lead. But in the bottom half of the inning the Shockers fired back to tie the game. Green and Brian Burgamy knocked in runs with RBI singles. Randy Walter then tied the game with a three-run home run off Goodrum.
Goodrum did not factor into the decision. He threw 108 pitches, went seven innings, gave up 11 hits, five runs and recorded six strikeouts. WSU’s Mike Dennison pitched 2.1 innings of shutout relief to earn his first win of the season.
Tomorrow, the Buckeyes will play in the finale of the 2001 Mardi Gras Classic. The Buckeyes will face host school Louisiana-Lafayette at 5 p.m.
