No. 20 Ohio State Upsets No. 6 Washington, 2-1, at NCAA Tourney – Ohio State Buckeyes
5/18/2002 12:00:00 AM | Softball
May 18, 2002
Box Score
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – The No. 20 Ohio State softball team scored in the first inning and never looked back as the Buckeyes posted a 2-1 upset of No. 6 Washington, the No. 1 seed in the tournament, Saturday at Alumni Field in the NCAA Region 6 Championship tournament in Ann Arbor, Mich. The third-seeded OSU squad was led by another solid pitching performance from Katie Chain (Jr., North Canton, Ohio/Hoover) and two-hit outings from Wendy Allen (So., Moreno Valley, Calif./Moreno Valley) and Anna Smith (Sr., Walnut, Calif./Diamond Bar) to earn another shot at the team that has plagued OSU this year: No. 11 Michigan. The Buckeyes improved to 55-13 on the year following their biggest win of the season while sending UW to its second loss on the day (6-5 to UM in the opener) and out of the national tournament with a 46-18 record.
Becky Simpson led off the game with a single to short and moved to second on a ground out but was stranded with the Buckeyes coming to bat. With OSU’s first two batters grounding out, Allen stepped up and lined an Ashley Boek offering to right just under the grasp of a diving Megan Owen’s glove. Allen rounded second and came into third as the ball was thrown into the shortstop who in turn overthrew third allowing Allen to score on a triple with a throwing error. Allen’s other hit came in the sixth with a double to left center that would knock starter Boek from the game.
The Buckeyes added its second run of the contest in the third inning. Sarah West (Sr., Galloway, Ohio/Hilliard Davidson) opened the stanza with a single through the left side and was run for by Meghan Rowlands (Fr., Hilliard, Ohio/Bishop Ready). Rowlands moved to second on a Breana Pozzi (So., Petaluma, Calif./Casa Grande) sacrifice bunt and came into score what would later become the game-winning run when Smith tripled to right center. Smith would pick up her 105th hit in the fifth inning pushing her to No. 9 on the NCAA’s single season record list. The Huskies pulled within one run quickly with Amanda Oleson connecting on her third home run of the year while leading off the inning. From there, Chain allowed three more hits with no base runner getting past second thanks in part to four of her six strikeouts and tough defensive plays like an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play in the fifth.
UW went 1-3 against Big Ten competition this year with its win over Wisconsin and losses coming to Penn State, UM and OSU. The two losses on the day for the Huskies marked only the second time this year that had happened. PSU and Fresno State combined for the feat on Feb. 22 with UM and OSU doing it again Saturday.
The Buckeyes now face the Wolverines for the sixth time in 2002 with all games being played at Alumni Field. For the year, OSU has played nine games on UM’s home field posting an 0-5 record against the Wolverines and a 4-0 record against non-UM squads with wins over Illinois and PSU at the Big Ten Tournament and Central Michigan and UW at the NCAA Region 6 event this weekend.
