Ohio State Fights Back for 6-4 Win Against Spartans – Ohio State Buckeyes
5/11/2002 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 11, 2002
Box Score
LANSING, Mich. – Lefthanded pitcher Josh Newman (So., Wheelersburg, Ohio/Wheelersburg) struck out eight batters and the Ohio State offense rallied with four runs in the sixth to beat Michigan State 6-4 Saturday night at Oldsmobile Park.
The Buckeyes, which improved to 30-16-1 overall and 16-9 in the Big Ten, scored four runs in the sixth inning to take a 6-2 advantage. Christian Snavely (So., Defiance, Ohio/Defiance) drew a walk to lead off the inning and then Brett Garrard (So., Brownsburg, Ind./Brownsburg) reached on a throwing error by Spartan starter Nick Bates. Bates then caught Doug Deeds (So., Bexley, Ohio/Bexley) looking at strike three for the first out of the inning. The walk by Snavely ended a streak of 13 batters retired by Bates.
A Nick Swisher (Jr., Parkersburg, W.Va./Parkersburg) single to right plated Snavely. Swisher then stole second to open first base for an intentional walk to Doug Dendinger (Sr., Greenwich, Ohio/South Central). The walk to Dendinger was the 137th of his career, giving him the school’s career bases on balls record. He had been tied with Greg Mohler who had 136 walks between 1981-84.
Joe Wilkins (Sr., Grove City, Ohio/Dublin Scioto) grounded to first base, but instead of stepping on first for the automatic out, Spartan first baseman Kyle Geswein threw home trying to catch Garrard at the plate, but Garrard slid under the tag to put the Buckeyes up 4-2.
Drew Anderson (Fr., Brownsburg, Ind./Brownsburg) and Mike Rabin (Fr., West Chester, Ohio/Lakota East) knocked in runs to give the Buckeyes a 6-2 lead. The Spartans rallied to score two in the bottom of the sixth to pull within the two-run final.
Newman pitched all seven innings allowing the four Michigan State runs on four hits. He had two walks vs. the eight strikeouts in improving to 8-4 on the year. With the loss, Bates fell to 9-3 on the season. He pitched 5 2/3 innings giving up six Ohio State runs (three earned) on only three hits. He struck out nine, but walked four.
Swisher finished the game 2-for-4 for the Buckeyes, scored a run and knocked in a run. Dendinger was 1-for-2, scored once and drove in a pair of runs.
After a three-hour rain delay, the two runs scored by Ohio State in the first inning proved to be key. Snavely led off the game with a double to the gap in right-centerfield and then advanced to a third on a passed ball. Deeds walked and then stole second to put two Buckeyes in scoring position for Dendinger, who singled up the middle to give Ohio State an early 2-0 lead.
Michigan State, which fell to 31-16 overall and 12-12 in the conference, manufactured a run in the fourth inning to pull within 2-1. Base hits by Travis Gulick and Kyle Geswein led things off for the Spartans. A sacrifice bunt by James Deliz moved both runners into scoring position and then a base hit by Jim Duffy scored Gulick. After a pop out to first, Newman picked off Duffy at first to end the inning.
But the Spartans tied the game, 2-2, in the fifth inning on a double shot down the leftfield line by Bob Malek that scored Charlie Braun who reached with a base hit to centerfield.
After only playing one of the two games schedule for Saturday, the two teams will conclude the series with a doubleheader on Sunday beginning at 1 p.m. Both games will be seven innings in length.
