Three OSU Pitchers Limit Bethune-Cookman to Six Hits in 9-1 Victory – Ohio State Buckeyes
3/12/2006 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 12, 2006
Box Score
CLEARWATER, Fla. – Ohio State freshmen pitchers Jake Hale and J.B. Shuck and sophomore closer Rory Meister combined to allow just six hits as the Buckeye offense pounded out 19 hits in a 9-1 Buckeye victory vs. Bethune-Cookman Sunday at Jack Russell Memorial Stadium.
Hale, a right-handed pitcher from Albany, Ohio (Alexander) was cruising along in his first career start until a collision with catcher Josh Hula (Fr., Castalia, Ohio/Margaretta) on a shallow pop up in the bottom of the fifth inning. He did not allow his first hit until two away in the third and allowed another in the fourth. Wildcat catcher Drew Clark led off the fifth with a double before Hale fielded the popup and ran into Hula, who was diving to make the grab. Hale walked his next batter and that drew a visit from head coach Bob Todd, who replaced him with Shuck, a left-hander from Galion, Ohio (Galion). That brought an early close for Hale (0-1), who was in line to get his first win as a Buckeye. He pitched 4.1 innings and did not allow a run on three hits. He struck out six, but walked four.
Shuck and Hale did not allow a run on five hits before Meister, a sophomore from Mansfield, Ohio (Mansfield Madison), allowed the first run by the Wildcats to score on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth inning. Shuck got the win to improve to 2-0 in his Buckeye career. He went 3.2 innings and allowed only two hits with three strikeouts and a pair of walks.
The Buckeyes continued the weekend hit parade from the very start.
Jacob Howell (Jr., Ashland, Ohio/Ashland) led off the game with a double down the left field line and scored on a single through the right side by Matt Angle (So., Whitehall, Ohio/Whitehall-Yearling) to give Ohio State an early 1-0 lead.
Angle led off the third inning with a single up the middle and went to second on a wild pitch before Eric Fryer (So., Reynoldsburg, Ohio/Reynoldsburg) drew a walk. Ronnie Bourquin (Jr., Canton, Ohio/Canton South) came through with his eighth hit of the weekend, a single to left to score Angle. Adam Schneider (Jr., Agoura Hills, Calif./Agoura) followed with a one-out sacrifice fly to score Fryer. And then after Wes Schirtzinger (Jr., Westerville, Ohio/Westerville North) drew a walk, Jason Zoeller (Jr., Verona, Pa./Shady Side Academy) singled through the left side to score Bourquin and give the Buckeyes a 4-0 advantage.
The Buckeyes got another runner across the plate in the fourth inning to go up 5-0. Fryer scored Angle from first base with a single to the gap in left-center field. Angle reached on a one-out single to shallow left-center.
Angle came through with fourth straight hit of the game with one out in the sixth. He tripled to the gap in left-center field and then scored on a single to left by Fryer to extend the lead to 6-0.
Jedidiah Stephen (Sr., Caldwell, Ohio/Shenandoah) finally got his first hit to lead off the seventh inning. Stephen now has a hit in all 10 games this season and in the season-ending loss to St. John’s last year in the NCAA Corvallis Regional to run his hit streak to 11 games, which ties his career best. The school record is 23 games set by Jay Semke in 1987. After moving to second on a base hit by Schneider, Stephen was nabbed at third on a fielder’s choice. Hula dropped a ball into shallow centerfield to score Schneider before Tony Kennedy (So., Bloomington, Ind./Bloomington South) was thrown out trying to reach second.
Two more runs scored in the top of the ninth inning to give Ohio State a 9-0 lead. Howell and Angle led off the inning with singles. Bourquin scored both runners with a single to left field.
Angle led the way for the Buckeyes and for the second straight Sunday was 5-for-6. Howell, Fryer, Bourquin, Schneider and Hula added two hits each. Collin Irvine and Drew Clark had two of Bethune-Cookman’s six hits.
The Buckeyes finished the week 4-0 after a doubleheader sweep of Lehigh on Friday (17-10, 13-6), a win vs. Northern Iowa (9-6) and the 9-1 victory Sunday vs. Bethune-Cookman. In the four games Ohio State scored 48 runs on 73 hits.
Ohio State will return to action Sunday, March 19 when it meets Massachusetts to open its annual spring break trip at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla. The Buckeyes also will play a single game vs. Illinois-Chicago and two games against each Cornell and Vermont, March 19-24.
