Baseball Hands Minnesota First Home Big Ten Loss in 2003 – Ohio State Buckeyes
5/17/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 17, 2003
Box Score
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – After two losses to open the series, Ohio State rebounded to win the nightcap of a Saturday doubleheader 5-1 against Minnesota and end the Gophers’ home conference win streak dating back to May 12, 2002. Iowa was the last team to beat the Gophers in a regular season game at Siebert Field, a streak of 14 games.
The victory also prevented Minnesota from equaling the Buckeyes’ conference record of 25 Big Ten wins from 1994 and 1999. The Golden Gophers fell to 36-18 on the year and 23-6 in the Big Ten with one game remaining, while Ohio State improved to 37-17 and 20-11 in the Big Ten. It was the sixth time in school history that the Buckeyes won at least 20 conference games and the first time since 2001. Ohio State has won more than 20 games those two other times in 1994 and 1999.
For the third time in three games, Ohio State jumped out to the early lead, but this time, stayed in front of the Gophers for the entire game. In the top of the fourth inning, Christian Snavely (Jr., Defiance, Ohio/Defiance) sent a shot off the scoreboard to give the Buckeyes a 2-0 lead. His second home run of the day also scored Mike Rabin (So., West Chester, Ohio/Lakota East), who drew a walk to leadoff the inning. The home run was Snavely’s 11th of the season and the 29th of his career, tying Eric Pfaff (1982-85) for 11th on the OSU career list.
Ohio State manufactured the first run of a three-run fifth inning. Brett Garrard (Jr., Brownsburg, Ind./Brownsburg) led off the inning with a double down the left-field line that skidded past a diving third baseman. Kelly Houser (Fr., New Holland, Ohio/Adena) sacrificed himself to move Garrard to third on a bunt back to the pitcher and then Jedidiah Stephen (Fr., Caldwell, Ohio/Shenandoah) flew out to right field to score Garrard on the sacrifice, giving the Buckeyes a 3-0 lead.
A two-out throwing error on Minnesota shortstop Scott Welch led to two more Ohio State runs, giving the Buckeyes a 5-0 lead. Drew Anderson (So., Brownsburg, Ind./Brownsburg) singled to left-center field and then Rabin and Snavely both walked to load the bases for Caravati. The Buckeyes’ designated hitter sent a shot to short and Welch threw the ball past first baseman David Roach to score two runners and put Caravati at second. Paul Farinacci (So., Westlake Village, Calif./Agoura) then flew out to end the inning.
Minnesota posted a single digit on the scoreboard in the bottom of the sixth to end the Buckeye bid at a 10th shutout of the season. Andy Hunter doubled to left-center with one out. He moved to third on a wild pitch by OSU starter Mike Madsen (So., Chesterland, Ohio/Notre Dame Cathedral Latin) on ball four against Roach. That prompted a pitching change as Matt Davis (So., Mason, Ohio/William Mason) came on to close out the game. Davis got David Hrncirik to ground back to him and then threw on to first for the out, but Hunter scored on the play to close the gap to 5-1.
Madsen pitched 5 1/3 innings, surrendering one run on five hits. He walked three and struck out two in improving to 6-1 on the year. Minnesota’s Jay Gagner fell to 4-5 with the loss. He pitched 4 1/3 innings allowing three runs on four hits with two walks and three strikeouts.
The Gophers out-hit the Buckeyes 6-5, but Ohio State got multiple hits from Anderson for the 19th time this season. He went 2-for-4 in the game with singles in the first and fifth innings. Rabin, Snavely and Garrard also had hits for Ohio State. Minnesota centerfielder Sam Steidl went 3-for-4 and Hunter finished 2-for-3.
After losing Friday night to Minnesota, the Buckeyes entered the day with a magic number of two games over Michigan for the No. 2 seed. The Boilermakers handed the Wolverines 8-6 and 7-4 losses in their doubleheader Saturday in West Lafayette, Ind., giving Ohio State a first-round bye in the Big Ten Tournament, which gets underway Wednesday at Minnesota’s Siebert Field.
The Buckeyes will open play in the Big Ten Tournament Thursday at 4:35 p.m. (EDT). The opponent is still in the air, though Ohio State will play the higher seeded winner between game one (No. 4 seed vs. No. 5 seed) and game two (No. 3 seed vs. No. 6 seed) from the opening round Wednesday.
The Buckeyes and Gophers conclude the series Sunday with a single nine-inning game at 2:05 p.m. (EDT).
