Snavely Blasts a Ninth Inning Grand Slam to Lead No. 26 Baseball to a 10-9 Win over Michigan State. – Ohio State Buckeyes
4/13/2001 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 13, 2001
EAST LANSING, Mich. – “Mr. Clutch” is quickly becoming the nickname of Ohio State’s Christian Snavely (Fr., Defiance, Ohio). In less then seven days, Snavely belted his second final inning, game-winning home run in Big Ten Conference play. With bases loaded and the game tied at six in the top of the ninth inning, Snavely entered the contest as a pinch hitter and took a 2-2 offering from Michigan State reliever Bryan Gale over the right field wall to give OSU a 10-6 lead. MSU attempted a rally in the bottom half of the inning and scored three runs to cut the lead to one run. But stopper Cory Cox (Sr., Chillicothe, Ohio) squashed the rally and recorded the final two outs to help lead the No. 26 Buckeyes (25-7 overall, 7-2 in the Big Ten) to a 10-9 victory at Kobs Field. The win gives OSU a 1-0 edge in the four game series with the Spartans (16-16 overall, 3-8 in the Big Ten).
“I went up to the plate just looking to put the ball in play,” Snavely said. “He threw me an inside fastball and it just carried over the fence.”
MSU took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning courtesy of a two-run home run by Brady Burrill off a 3-2 offering from OSU staring pitcher E.J. Laratta (Jr., Englewood, Colo.). .
In the top of the second inning, OSU cut the MSU lead to 2-1. Nick Swisher (So., Parkersburg, W.Va.) led off with a double to left field and later advanced to third base on a groundout by Doug Deeds (Fr., Bexley, Ohio). John Mayor (Sr., Chesterfield, Mo.) followed and plated Swisher with a sacrifice fly to right field.
In the top of the fourth inning, OSU tied the game at two. Steve Caravati (Fr., Dover, Ohio) led off with an infield single. He then moved to third base thanks to a double down the left field line by Swisher. Two batters later, Caravati scored on a groundout to second base by Mayor.
The Buckeyes took their first lead of the game in the top of the fifth inning. Trent McIlvain (Sr., Louisville, Ohio) and Mike Harris (Sr., Hillsborough, N.C.) opened the inning with back-to-back singles. Mike Check (Sr., Bay Village, Ohio) followed and hammered a bases-clearing triple to give OSU a 4-2 lead. The offensive onslaught continued as Doug Dendinger (Jr., Greenwich, Ohio) wrapped a 1-1 offering from MSU’s Kyle Geswein around the right field foul pole to increase the OSU lead to 6-2. The home run was Dendinger’s fifth of the season.
In the bottom half of the third inning, the Spartans fired back with three runs. James Moreno had a one-run single and Troy Bergman plated a pair with a single to cut the OSU lead to 6-5.
MSU tied the game in the bottom of the eighth inning. Geswein took a 1-2 offering from Laratta over the right field wall to tie the contest at six.
In the top of the ninth, Harris led off and reached base when he was hit by a pitch from Dylan Putnam. Check followed with a bunt single and MSU elected to intentionally walk Dendinger to load the bases and set the stage for Snavely’s heroics. The grand slam was his fourth home run of the season.
In the bottom of the ninth, MSU scored three runs but stranded the game tying and winning runs on base.
Offensively, Harris, Check, Caravati and Swisher each recorded two hits.
Both starting pitchers did not factor into the decision. Laratta went 7.1 innings, threw 107 pitches (71 strikes), allowed 10 hits, six runs (all earned), walked a pair and recorded three strikeouts. Reliever Brandon Steen (Jr., Hendersonville, Tenn.) threw 1.0 innings to pick up the win (3-2). Cox picked up his league leading seventh save of the season. MSU’s Geswein went 5.1 innings, gave up 10 hits, six runs (all earned), walked a pair and recorded three strikeouts. Reliever Putnam (1-6) took the loss. He went 2.2 innings, gave up one hit, one run and recorded one strikeout.
Tomorrow, the teams continue the four-game series with a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m. The series finale on Sunday begins at 1 p.m.
