Swisher Gives Ohio State 6-5 Win Over Northwestern – Ohio State Buckeyes
3/30/2002 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 30, 2002%^$
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%^$COLUMBUS, Ohio – Centerfielder Nick Swisher (Jr., Parkersburg, W.Va./Parkersburg) hit an 0-2 slider from Northwestern starter Ryan Bos over the leftfield fence scoring two to lift No. 21 Ohio State to a 6-5 triumph in the bottom first game of a doubleheader Saturday at Bill Davis Stadium.%^$
%^$Ohio State (14-4-1, 2-0 Big Ten) trailed 5-1 entering the bottom of the seventh inning of the seven-inning game. Joe Wilkins (Sr., Grove City, Ohio/Dublin Scioto) and Christian Snavely (So., Defiance, Ohio/Defiance) each singled to lead off the inning. After a flyout by Terry Pettorini (So., Wooster, Ohio/Wooster), Paul Farinacci (Fr, Westlake Village, Calif./Agoura), pinch hitting for leftfielder Mike Rabin (Fr., West Chester, Ohio/Lakota East), doubled down the rightfield line to bring home Wilkins from second. A single to shallow right field plated Snavely, pulling the Buckeyes within 5-3.%^$
%^$Brett Garrard (So., Brownsburg, Ind./Brownsburg) singled to right putting runners at the corners. A double steal had Northwestern catcher Ken Padgett throwing to second as Geoff Buchanan (Fr., Camarillo, Calif./Adolfo Camarillo) , who was pinch running for Farinacci, stole home, pulling OSU within 5-4.%^$
%^$So, with two outs, Swisher came to the plate, hitting his second home run of the day over the leftfield fence. Swisher also homered in the completition of Friday’s suspended game. He finished the first game of the scheduled doubleheader 2-for-3 with two RBI.%^$
%^$Lefthanded starting pitcher Scott Lewis had a strong start against Northwestern (6-11, 0-2), including strikeouts of all three Wildcat batters in the third inning. But in the fourth, the Wildcats jumped on Lewis for two runs. Josh Lieberman tripled to lead off the inning and then was hit in by Brandon Ackley who doubled.%^$
%^$Ohio State pulled within one run, 2-1, in the sixth innings. Brett Garrard reached second on a two-base error to start the inning. Nick Swisher sacrificed himself with a bunt to move Garrard to third.%^$
%^$Scott Lewis (Fr., Washington Court House, Ohio/Washington Court House) went on to fan nine batters though he gave up five walks to the 26 batters he faced. He went 6 1/3 innings allowing four hits by Northwestern. He was replaced by Matt Davis (Fr., Mason, Ohio/William Mason) who gave up two hits and allowed an unearned run to score. Davis got the win to improve to 2-0 on the year since he was the pitcher of record when Ohio State put up five runs on the bottom of the seventh. The loss went to Bos who was making a bid at his first complete game of the season. He fell to 1-4 on the year.%^$
%^$The two teams play the second game of the doubleheader immediately following this game and then wrap up the four-game series with a 1:05 p.m. first pitch.%^$
