No. 24 Baseball Heats Up for 8-1 Win at Iowa – Ohio State Buckeyes
3/31/2001 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 31, 2001
Box Score
IOWA CITY, Iowa – The No. 24 Ohio State baseball team (19-4 overall, 2-0 Big Ten) scored runs in each of the first four innings and then rode the arm of Kevin Goodrum (Sr., Mentor, Ohio) to grab an 8-1 win over Iowa (8-9, 0-3) Saturday at Duane Banks Field. The win extends the Buckeye winning streak to 16 games and leaves Ohio State in sole possession of first place in the conference.
The teams braved brutally cold weather conditions and wind chills in the single digits. Morning precipitation forced a 2-hour delay in the start of the doubleheader. Because of the inclement weather, only one of the two scheduled games was played. The second game will be played as part of a doubleheader at 1 p.m. Sunday. Both games tomorrow will be seven innings.
Goodrum (3-0) picked up the win, firing a complete-game 4-hitter. He allowed one earned run, while walking two and fanning four in the 104-pitch effort. Iowa starter Nick Jensen (1-3) took the defeat, lasting just 1.2 innings. He gave up only one hit but was plagued by five walks. Two of the four runs he allowed were earned.
“The wind affected me more than the cold,” Goodrum said. “It’s a great luxury to start the game with a three-run cushion. This is a solid win for us going into the doubleheader tomorrow.”
OSU scored three runs in the first inning off Jensen without the benefit of a hit. With one out, Mike Check (Sr., Bay Village, Ohio) walked and stole second base. Nick Swisher (So., Parkersburg, W. Va.) then walked, and Doug Deeds (Fr., Bexley, Ohio) followed with a grounder to first baseman Brad Carlson, who threw the ball into Swisher’s back, leaving the Buckeyes with the bases loaded. Christian Snavley (Fr., Defiance, Ohio) and Doug Dendinger (Jr., Greenwich, Ohio) coaxed back-to-back run-scoring walks and John Mayor (Sr., Chesterfield, Mo.) hit a sacrifice fly to right field, as the Buckeyes jumped out to a 3-0 lead. The Buckeyes tacked on a run in the second inning. Trent McIlvain (Sr., Louisville, Ohio) was hit by the first pitch of the inning. He advanced to second base on a Mike Harris (Sr., Hillsborough, N.C.) sacrifice bunt. With two outs, Swisher rallied from an 0-2 count and drilled a Jensen pitch into the corner in right field for a double, scoring McIlvain to give the Buckeyes a 4-0 advantage.
OSU continued to add to its lead in the third inning when Dendinger drilled a 1-0 belt-high fastball from reliever Matt Hasz over the right-field wall for a solo home run – his third long ball of the season. After Mayor drew a walk, Joe Wilkins (Jr., Grove City, Ohio) ripped a double to the wall in left field to plate Mayor.
Iowa dented the scoreboard in the third inning on a one-out RBI single by Kurt Vitense, but he was quickly erased from the basepaths on a 6-4-3 double play.
Ohio State responded in the fourth inning. With one out, Swisher drew a walk and advanced to second base on a single by Deeds. Both runners moved up two bases on back-to-back wild pitches by Hasz. The second wild pitch scored Swisher to give OSU a 7-1 advantage.
The Buckeyes posted their final run in the seventh inning. With one out, Dendinger hit a double to center field. After a walk to Mayor, Chris Alvord (Sr., Mentor, Ohio) reached when Brian Burks’ throw on the back end of a potential double play was wild. The errant throw allowed Dendinger to scamper home with the Buckeyes’ eighth run.
