Baseball Downs Michigan 11-6 in Ann Arbor – Ohio State Buckeyes
5/3/2002 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 3, 2002
Box Score
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Ohio State scored four times in the first inning and never looked back in beating Michigan 11-6 Friday in the first game of a four-game Big Ten series at Ray Fisher Stadium.
Nick Swisher (Jr., Parkersburg, W.Va./Parkersburg) went 3-for-6 in the game and knocked in four runs, including a three-run triple in the top of the ninth to give the Buckeyes a five-run advantage. The ball was five feet short of clearing the fence in right-centerfield. Swisher doubled in the first inning to extend his hit streak to 19 games.
Doug Dendinger (Sr., Greenwich, Ohio/South Central) also had a big day for the Buckeyes. He was 2-for-4 and produced three RBI. Doug Deeds (So., Bexley, Ohio/Bexley) was 4-for-5 without and RBI on four singles. He scored three times.
Ohio State, which improved to 27-13-1 overall and 14-6 in the Big Ten, jumped on Michigan from the opening pitch, scoring four times on seven hits in the top of the first inning. Christian Snavely (So., Defiance, Ohio/Defiance) led off the game with a single through the right side and then Brett Garrard (So., Brownsburg, Ind./Brownsburg) deposited a shot over the leftfield fence to give the Buckeyes the early 2-0 lead.
Deeds and Swisher each followed with base hits and then Dendinger singled up the middle, scoring Deeds and Swisher to put the Buckeyes up 4-0. Before the end of the inning, Ohio State went on to get two more hits off Michigan starting pitcher Bobby Korecky.
Garrard scored again in the second inning on a ground out by Nick Swisher to give the Buckeyes a 5-0 lead. But Michigan’s Mike Sokol put the Wolverines on the board in the bottom of the inning, scoring Gino Lollio, who reached with a one-out double.
After Ohio State took a 6-1 lead in the top of the third, Michigan answered with a pair of runs in the bottom half of the inning thanks to a couple of base hits and an error to pull within 6-3.
Two more errors by the Buckeyes led to two more runs for the Wolverines in the fourth. Brandon Jominy reached on a base hit through the legs of third baseman Drew Anderson (Fr., Brownsburg, Ind./Brownsburg) and then Nick Rudden scored on a throwing error by Nate Smith (Jr., Bryan, Ohio/Bryan). Both scored on ground outs to pull Michigan within 6-5.
Dendinger gave the Buckeyes a 7-5 lead with a double down the leftfield line in the seventh inning. The two-bagger scored Swisher from first. The Wolverines got their first hit since the third inning, but then Ohio State got Brandon Roberts to ground into a double play, which ended up preventing the Wolverines from tying the game on a Jake Fox home run over the leftfield fence.
In the eighth inning, Deeds scored on a single by Joe Wilkins (Sr., Grove City, Ohio/Dublin Scioto) to put the Buckeyes up by two runs, 8-6.
Smith remained perfect for the Buckeyes this season, improving to 5-0 with the victory. He pitched 7 1/3 innings, allowing six runs (three earned) on 10 hits. He walked just one and struck out four. Brandon Steen (Sr., Hendersonville, Tenn./Hendersonville) came into the game in the eighth inning with the Buckeyes clinging to a two-run lead. He allowed just one hit in 1 2/3 innings to pick up his sixth save of the year. Korecky got the loss for Michigan (14-27, 8-13) to fall to 3-6 after giving up 17 of Ohio State’s 18 hits.
The series continues with a doubleheader on Saturday at 1 p.m. and then concludes with a single game on Sunday at 1 p.m.
