Baseball Stays Perfect on Wednesdays With 6-1 Win Over Vikings – Ohio State Buckeyes
5/14/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 14, 2003
Box Score
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio State baseball team finished perfect in eight midweek home games after beating Cleveland State 6-1 Wednesday night in front of 1,688 fans at Bill Davis Stadium. It was the first time since 1995 that the Buckeyes went undefeated in midweek contests. The Scarlet and Gray outscored Wednesday visitors 56-2 this season.
Trent Luyster (So., Flushing, Ohio/Harrison Central) got the midweek start for the Buckeyes, going four innings. He allowed only two hits and struck out a career-high six batters in the abbreviated start. Justin Myers (Fr., Scottown, Ohio/Symmes Valley) came on in relief to start the fifth inning.
Cleveland state manufactured a run in the fifth. Steve Chinn led off the inning with a double over the head of OSU centerfielder Mike Rabin (Jr., West Chester, Ohio/Lakota East). He was bunted over to third on a sacrifice by Eric Schmitz and then scored on a base hit up the middle by Mario Angelo. The run was first scored against Ohio State on Wednesday night in 49 innings, going back to a 2-1 Buckeye victory against Oakland on April 9.
Ohio State got its first hit in the bottom of the inning. Derek Kinnear (Jr., Kenton, Ohio/Kenton) got a one-out hit, but was caught stealing for the second out of the inning. A fly out by Terry Pettorini (Jr., Wooster, Ohio/Wooster) ended the inning.
Following a script right out of the scorebook from last weekend’s game against the Vikings at Jacobs Field, the Buckeyes sent their No. 9 batter to plate to lead off the inning. Last week, it was Jedidiah Stephen (Fr., Caldwell, Ohio/Shenandoah) who sent one out to left field. This week, it was Wes Schirtzinger (Fr., Westerville, Ohio/Westerville North) sending a shot over the fence in right field for his first career home run to tie the game 1-1.
The Buckeyes, which scored three times in the third inning at Jacobs Field last week, added four more runs in the inning to build a 5-1 lead Wednesday. Brett Garrard (Jr., Brownsburg, Ind./Brownsburg) followed the home run with his fourth triple of the season and then scored on a base hit through the left side by Rabin. After Rabin stole second, Christian Snavely (Jr., Defiance, Ohio/Defiance) doubled to right to plate Rabin, giving Ohio State a 3-1 lead.
Cleveland State changed pitchers, bringing in Jimmy Gulden for Brian Legan. Steve Caravati (Jr., Dover, Ohio/Dover) drew a walk off Gulden to put runners and first and second with no outs. After a strikeout by Paul Farinacci (So., Westlake Village, Calif./Agoura), Cody Caughenbaugh (Fr., Newark, Ohio/Licking Valley) singled to left center to score both Snavely and Caravati, who had moved up a base on a wild pitch.
Greg Prenger (Sr., Harpster, Ohio/Upper Sandusky) came on to start the seventh inning for Ohio State and kept the Vikings off the scoreboard in the inning. The Buckeyes added another run after the seventh-inning stretch, taking full benefit of a lead-off hit by Schirtzinger. He stole second and then scored on Snavely’s second double of the game to give the Buckeyes a five-run lead.
Schirtzinger and Snavely each finished 2-for-3 in the game. Snavely knocked in two runs and scored once, while Schirtzinger batted in one and scored twice. The Buckeyes out-hit the Vikings 9-6 and neither team committed an error.
Myers got his first collegiate win in just his third game, pitching just two innings. He allowed one run (earned) on a pair of hits with a strikeout in getting to 1-0 on the year. Prenger also went two innings with three strikeouts against one hit. Kyle Brown (Sr., Washington Court House, Ohio/Washington) closed out the game pitching the final inning. Brian Legan got the loss for Cleveland State to fall to 0-1.
Now that the regular season home schedule has concluded, the Buckeyes (36-15 overall and 19-9 in the Big Ten) travel to Minneapolis, Minn. this weekend to close out Big Ten play with four-game series against Minnesota (34-17, 21-5). Ohio State trails the Gophers by three games in the conference standings and need to sweep all four games against Minnesota to win its third Big Ten regular season championship in five years. The teams play a single nine-inning game at 8:05 p.m. (EDT) Friday, a pair of seven-inning games at 5:05 p.m. Saturday and a single nine-inning game at 2:05 p.m. Sunday.
