Schwab Homers Twice to Lead Ohio State Past Cal State Fullerton, 6-1 – Ohio State Buckeyes
3/23/2005 12:00:00 AM | Softball
March 23, 2005
Box Score
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio State sophomore Megan Schwab hit a pair of home runs to lead the Buckeye softball team to a 6-1 victory at Cal State Fullerton Wednesday. Junior Natalie Hales also homered and sophomore Jamee Juarez struck out six Titans and allowed just two hits to win her ninth-consecutive decision and reach 200 career strikeouts.
The game was originally scheduled for Tuesday but postponed by rain and marked Ohio State’s first of four games on its spring break tour in Southern California. The Buckeyes’ win is their 11th in their last 12 games as OSU improves to 15-6 and wins for the second consecutive year over Fullerton (9-11), which was ranked No. 24 when OSU won in 2004.
The two-home run game was the second this season for Schwab (Glendale, Ariz./Sunrise Mountain), who also hit two round-trippers against Mississippi State March 6. Against Cal State Fullerton, however, her five RBI marked a new career best. The homers were her sixth and seventh of the season, moving her into seventh place on the Ohio State single season home run list. Her 10 career home runs are also tied for seventh on that list. Schwab ended the game 3-for-4 to extend her team-leading hitting streak to seven games, which matches her career-best streak.
Juarez (La Puente, Calif./Wilson) retired 12 of the first 13 batters she faced as she upped her record in the circle to 11-4 on the season after beginning the year 2-4. Her 200 career strikeouts are seventh all-time at Ohio State. Juarez also added a double at the plate.
Schwab’s two-run blast in the fourth inning would prove to be enough for the win Wednesday, but she added a three-run shot in the top of the seventh inning after Hales (Canton, Ohio/Eastern Michigan) hit a solo home run earlier in the frame. With Ohio State up 3-1 after Hales’ first home run of the season and third of her career, sophomore Nycole Koyano (Walnut, Calif./Walnut) and senior Karisa Evans (Franklin, Ohio/Franklin) hit back-to-back singles, bringing Schwab to the plate for her second homer of the game to provide the final scoring of the contest. The Buckeyes’ four-run seventh-inning matched their highest-scoring seventh inning of the season, tying the four runs they scored against No. 20 Pacific Feb. 25 in Palm Springs, Calif. OSU junior Billie Jo Carder (Celina, Ohio/Celina) doubled in the fifth inning, marking her second-consecutive game with a double and giving her at least one hit in 10 of her last 14 games.
Cal State Fullerton, which had wins this season over No. 3 UCLA and No. 7 Georgia, was playing an unranked team for the first time in four outings, but saw their top three hitters all fail to reach base. A year ago, the Buckeyes scored six of their seven runs in their final two at bats to knock off the 24th-ranked Titans in Columbus, Ga., at the NFCA Leadoff Classic.
Ohio State remains undefeated at 10-0 when scoring at least six runs, 14-0 when leading after four innings and 12-0 when outhitting its opponent.
The Buckeyes travel to Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles Thursday for a double-header beginning at 1 p.m. (PST).
### GO BUCKS! ###
