Buckeye Baseball Opens Season With 2-0 Win Over Alabama-Birmingham – Ohio State Buckeyes
2/22/2002 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Feb. 22, 2002
Box Score
STARKVILLE, Miss. – The Ohio State baseball team, behind a solid pitching performance from E.J. Laratta (Sr., Englewood, Colo./Cherry Creek), opened its 2002 season with a 2-0 victory over Alabama-Birmingham in the first game of the National Bank of Commerce Classic in Starkville, Miss., Friday. Laratta struck out nine Blazers (2-4) enroute to the 15th complete game of his career. Doug Dendinger (Sr., Greenwich, Ohio/South Central) sparked the Buckeye (1-0) offense with an RBI single in the top of the eighth to break a scoreless tie in a classic pitcher’s dual at Polk-Dement Stadium at Mississippi State.
Laratta and UAB starter Joe Yarbrough started strong with both pitchers and the defenses behind them halting any offensive threat produced. The Buckeyes and Blazers posted nearly identical results in the first four innings. Both squads went down in order to open the first and sent four to the plate in the second with both teams posting a single on the board. Laratta, after striking out Chad House to open the game, picked off Seth Rollin at first after Rollin reached on an error.
Doug Deeds (So., Bexley, Ohio/Bexley) collected the first hit of the year for OSU with a shot to left field to open the second, but the Buckeyes went down in order. UAB managed two baserunners on a hit batsman and a Matt Gaulden single to right. The inning ended with OSU turning the first of its two double plays.
OSU had two runners on in the third after Nick Swisher (Jr., Parkersburg, W.V./Parkersburg) walked and Terry Pettorini (So, Wooster, Ohio/Wooster) doubled down the third-base line. The Blazers hung tough and coaxed Christian Snavely (So., Defiance, Ohio/Defiance) to fly out to center to end the threat. Neither team could produce any offense until the eighth.
The Buckeyes sent Steve Caravati (So., Dover, Ohio/Dover) to the plate and the pinch hitter grounded a hard shot towards the shortstop and beat out the throw to reach first. He was thrown out on a Brett Garrard (So., Brownsburg, Ind./Brownsburg) fielder’s choice one batter later. Garrard, on the first pitch to leadoff hitter Drew Anderson (Fr., Brownsburg, Ind./Brownsburg), stole second and reached third two pitches later on a balk. Garrad came across to score when Dendinger ripped a shot to right to give OSU the 1-0 lead. Dendinger stole second one batter later but was stranded on base.
OSU protected its lead with a 1-2-3 inning including a strike out and two lineouts. In the Buckeye ninth, Snavely reached on an error by relief pitcher Tony Falls. Catcher Joe Wilkins (Sr., Grove City, Ohio/Dublin Scioto) reached on a fielder’s choice that forced Snavely out at second. Wilkins stole second and scored when Mike Rabin (Fr., West Chester, Ohio/Lakota East) singled down the right field line. Laratta returned in the bottom of the ninth and closed out the fourth shutout of his career with three strikeouts.
With the win, Laratta moved into a tie with Chris Granata (1991-94) for fifth all-time at OSU with 27. He also moved past Granata and Tom Schwarber (1987-91) in innings pitched with 300.1, the third-most in Buckeye history.
Ohio State returns to action with a doubleheader Saturday when the Buckeyes face the host Bulldogs at noon and the Blazers at 5 p.m.
