Baseball Splits Michigan Series with 9-5 Win – Ohio State Buckeyes
5/5/2002 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 5, 2002
Box Score
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Ohio State scored six times in the fifth inning on its way to a 9-5 victory over Michigan Sunday in the series finale at Ray Fisher Stadium. With the victory, the Buckeyes prevented the first series loss in conference play since the 1996 season when Penn State took a 3-1 series win.
Ohio State won the first game of the series, but Michigan swept the Buckeyes in the Saturday doubleheader, which was the first doubleheader sweep of the Buckeyes since Michigan did that in Ann Arbor in 2000.
The Buckeyes, which are now 28-15-1 overall and 15-8 in the Big Ten, scored six times in the fifth inning to take an 8-1 lead. Dendinger singled to shallow leftfield to score the first run and then Joe Wilkins (Sr., Grove City, Ohio/Dublin Scioto) singled to give the Buckeyes a 4-1 lead before the second out of the inning. Designated hitter Terry Pettorini (So., Wooster, Ohio/Wooster) got his first hit of the game and extended the OSU lead to 6-1 Snavely doubled to left and scored both Pettorini and Rabin to put Ohio State up by seven runs.
Scott Lewis (Fr., Washington Court House, Ohio/Washington Court House) pitched into the fifth inning, but left the game with only one out. Michigan scored one run and then Lewis walked designated hitter Gino Lollio to load the bases. Lewis was pulled for Chris Hanners (Fr., Groveport, Ohio/Desales) who retired the final two batters to get out of the inning. He pitched 2 2/3 innings allowing two runs in the sixth inning to pick up the victory. He improved to 2-2 on the season.
The Wolverines (16-28 and 10-14) scored those two runs off Hanners in the sixth to pull within three, 8-5, but could not score the rest of the way. Ohio State was aided in the ninth by two errors on sharply hit ground balls to short and to second. Swisher scored to force Michigan to score five times in the bottom of the inning should it gain victory.
Brandon Steen (Sr., Hendersonville, Tenn./Hendersonville) pitched the final two innings of the game to pick up his seventh save of the season. He did not allow a run on two Michigan hits.
Michigan struck first, just as it did in its two wins Saturday, with one run in the bottom of the second inning. Brandon Roberts led off the inning with a double and then moved to third on a wild pitch by OSU starter Lewis. He then got Lollio to ground out and punched out Nate Wright before walking Brandon Jominy. Jominy stole second on a stopped pickoff to keep Roberts at third. Roberts scored on a base hit by Nick Rudden.
Ohio State left the bases loaded in the third innings. With one out, consecutive bunt singles by Mike Rabin (Fr., West Chester, Ohio/Lakota East) and Christian Snavely (So., Defiance, Ohio/Defiance) put runners at first and second. A base hit to left loaded the bases, but Doug Deeds (So., Bexley, Ohio/Bexley) flied out in foul territory down the left field line and Nick Swisher (Jr., Parkersburg, W.Va./Parkersburg) popped out to short to squash the Buckeye threat.
A pair of doubles scored the first two runs of the game to give the Buckeyes a 2-1 lead in the fourth inning. Doug Dendinger (Sr., Greenwich, Ohio/South Central) led off with a walk, then stole second and then scored on a double down the leftfield line by Rabin. Drew Anderson (Fr, Brownsburg, Ind./Brownsburg) scored Rabin with a double to the gap in left-centerfield.
Snavely finished the game 2-for-5 with a pair of RBI and Pettorini knocked in two runs in a 1-for-3 effort.
Ohio State will play host to Miami (Ohio) Wednesday at 6:35 p.m. at Bill Davis Stadium.
