Three Home Runs Power Baseball Past Northwestern, 10-5 – Ohio State Buckeyes
3/25/2001 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 25, 2001
Box Score
BRADENTON, Fla. – Powered by home runs from Nick Swisher (So., Parkersburg, W.Va.), Christian Snavely (Fr., Defiance, Ohio) and Doug Deeds (Fr., Bexley, Ohio) and a solid pitching performance from ace E.J. Laratta (Jr., Englewood, Colo.), the Ohio State baseball team (15-4 overall ) defeated the Northwestern Wildcats (10-12 overall), 10-5 at Wynn Field. Laratta improved his record to 4-1 this season.
“I was hitting my spots and our offense really came to play today,” Laratta said. “Our goal was to finish this trip undefeated and at least we are in a position to do so now.”
The Buckeyes took a 1-0 lead in the top half of the second inning. Christian Snavely (Fr., Defiance, Ohio) led off with a double to left field. Two batters later, he advanced to third base on a single by Brett Garrard (Fr., Brownsburg, Ind.). Joe Wilkins (Jr., Grove City, Ohio) followed and drove in Snavely with a sacrifice fly to center field.
In the bottom of the third inning, Northwestern took a 2-1 lead. Steve Haake drove in a run on a triple and Eric Roeder followed with a sacrifice fly to score Haake and give the Wildcats their first lead of the game.
In the top of the fourth inning, Ohio State went back on the attack. Doug Deeds (Fr., Bexley, Ohio) led off and laced a double down the right field line. Garrard followed with a single to push the runner to third base. After a steal by Garrard, Northwestern starting pitcher Gabe Ribas fired a ball into the dirt past catcher Joe Hietpas to score Deeds and move Garrard to third base. Wilkins followed and plated Garrard with a single to left field. Trent McIlvain (Sr., Louisville, Ohio) kept the rally going with a single to left field and a bunt single by Mike Harris (Sr., Hillsborough, N.C.) loaded the bases. Mike Check (Sr., Bay Village, Ohio) then hit a sacrifice fly to left field to score Wilkins and increase the OSU lead to 4-2. The offense continued to hit all cylinders as Nick Swisher (So., Parkersburg, W.Va.) took the first pitch offered from Ribas over the right field wall for a three-run home run. The blast was Swisher’s Big Ten Conference leading eighth of the season. Snavely immediately followed Swisher’s lead and took a 1-1 offering over the center field wall for his second home run of the season to give OSU a commanding 8-2 lead.
In the bottom half of the fourth inning, the Wildcats cut the OSU lead to 8-3 on a solo home run by Dan Pohlman.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, Northwestern added a run when Brandon Ackley scored on a sacrifice fly by Eric Roeder.
With one out in the top of the seventh inning, Deeds belted a 2-1 offering from reliever Jason Krynski over the right field wall for his fifth home run of the season. The blast increased the OSU lead to 9-4.
In the top of the eighth inning, the Buckeyes increased their lead when they added a run off a fielding error by Northwestern leftfielder Brandon Ackley that allowed Check to score.
In the bottom of the ninth inning, Northwestern added the final run of the game off a solo home run by Chuck Sanna off OSU reliever Josh Newman (Fr., Wheelersburg, Ohio).
Laratta went seven innings and threw 73 pitches to pick up the win. He gave up seven hits, yielded four runs and recorded three strikeouts. Ribas took the loss for Northwestern. He went six innings, threw 113 pitches, allowed 11 hits, gave up eight runs (all earned), walked three and recorded six strikeouts.
