Buckeye Pitching Surrenders Two Hits in 14-0 Shutout of Vikings – Ohio State Buckeyes
5/15/2002 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 15, 2002
Box Score
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio State offense jumped all over Cleveland State and the pitching staff gave up only two hits in a 14-0 victory Wednesday night in front of 2,319 fans at Bill Davis Stadium. The victory gives the team a little bit of added confidence heading into a big conference series against Minnesota this weekend. The triumph was also the 600th victory for OSU head coach Bob Todd.
“When you stick around any place for a while you are going to win ball games,” Todd said after the milestone win. “I am very fortunate that I have had good assistant coaches and as good of talent as we have put out in the field. Some people make more out of these accomplishments than others. Some things aren’t as good as they are and some things aren’t as bad as they are either.”
The win was a great team effort as nearly everyone in the Buckeye dugout saw action on the field, including two pitchers Ohio State typically throws only on Sunday in Nate Smith (Jr., Bryan, Ohio/Bryan) and Scott Lewis (Fr., Washington Court House, Washington Court House). Both had missed starts this past weekend because of rainouts and Todd didn’t want them rusty heading into the series this weekend against Minnesota that will determine the Big Ten regular season champion.
“We couldn’t afford to let them go 8-10 days without those guys throwing,” Todd said of the pitchers that will return in the games three and four this weekend against the Gophers.
Smith threw only 37 pitches in improving to 6-0 in only four innings of work. He struck out one and walked one without allowing a hit. Lewis replaced Smith to start the fifth inning and did not allow a hit until the sixth inning and struck out two batters in his two innings on the mound. Matt Davis (Fr., Mason, Ohio/William Mason) came on in the seventh allowing the only other hit by Buckeye pitching. Chris Hanners (Fr., Groveport, Ohio/Desales) and Brandon Steen (Sr., Hendersonville, Tenn./Hendersonville) also added an inning apiece without allowing a hit. But as much as the two-hit shutout by Buckeye pitching was the story, OSU bats came alive early and often.
Third baseman Drew Anderson (Fr., Brownsburg, Ind./Brownsburg) put the Buckeyes on the board fin the second inning with his second home run of the season. The shot to leftfield barely cleared the fence, bouncing off the top of the fence to give Ohio State a 1-0 lead.
The Buckeyes, which improved to 31-16-1 overall, added five runs in the third thanks to back-to-back doubles by Nick Swisher (Jr., Parkersburg, W.Va./Parkersburg) and Doug Dendinger (Sr., Greenwich, Ohio/South Central). Swisher’s 12th double of the season scored Brett Garrard (So., Brownsburg, Ind./Brownsburg), while Dendinger’s eighth two-bagger of the season plate both Doug Deeds (So., Bexley, Ohio/Bexley) and Swisher.
Ohio State added another three runs in the fourth inning to take a 9-0 lead. Four hits and an error produced the trio of runs. Christian Snavely (So., Defiance, Ohio/Defiance) singled to lead off the inning and scored on a base hit by Swisher. Joe Wilkins (Sr., Grove City, Ohio/Dublin Scioto) singled to left to score Swisher but was thrown out at second.
Dendinger plated Garrard with a single in the sixth to take and 10-0 lead and then pinch hitter Lance Rolston (Jr., Athens, Ohio/Alexander) scored when Snavely reached on a fielder’s choice to go up 11-0. Deeds walked to put two on for pinch hitter Paul Farinacci (Fr., Westlake Village, Calif./Agoura), who deposited his third home run of the season over the leftfield fence to take the 14-0 decision.
A total of 21 Buckeyes saw action in the game, 10 of which accounted for the 16 hits. Swisher finished 3-for-4 in the game, scoring twice with a run batted in. Dendinger was 2-for-4 knocking in three runs and scoring once, while Wilkins plated two runs.
Viking starter David Boyza got the loss for Cleveland State, which fell to 15-31 with the defeat.
The defense continued to be strong for the Buckeyes, who have committed just one error in the last five games after miscues in the previous six ball games, including the final three of that stretch when they committed at least two.
The win was also the third Wednesday night victory in a row for Ohio State, which lost its first three such meetings to open midweek play to finish 3-3 in said contests.
Ohio State will play host to Minnesota in the final Big Ten series of the year. The conference regular season championship is riding on the series. The Gophers (16-8) lead the Buckeyes (16-9) by percentage points in the conference standings and only need to take two games to win the regular season, while Ohio State needs victories in three of the four games.
