Penn State Spoils Buckeye Title Chance, Win 3-2 – Ohio State Buckeyes
5/20/2006 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 20, 2006
Box Score
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Penn State got three early runs off Ohio State starter Cory Luebke and made them stand up in a 3-2 victory to spoil the Buckeyes’ chances at the Big Ten regular-season championship. Ohio State needs one win with two games left in the series or one Minnesota loss in its three remaining games to lock down the third seed in next week’s Big Ten tournament.
Penn State benefited from a fielding error on Buckeye right fielder Wes Schirtzinger (Jr., Westerville, Ohio/Westerville North) to score the game’s first run in the top of the first inning. Matt Cavagnaro drew a one-out walk and went to third on Schirtzinger’s error. Luebke, a sophomore from Maria Stein, Ohio (Marion Local), responded with his second strikeout of the inning, getting Scott Gummo to wave at strike three for what should have been the final out of the inning. Instead, Aaron Greenfield singled through the right side to score Cavagnaro for the 1-0 lead.
Two more Penn State runs scored in the second thanks to three consecutive one-out walks to Cory Wine, Rick Marlin and Travis Laird. After he struck out Scott Gaffney for the second time in the game, Cavagnaro singled through the left side to plate both Wine and Marlin to give the Nittany Lions a 3-0 lead.
Luebke got Lance Thompson to fly out to end the second to begin a stretch of 11 straight Penn State batters to be retired. He walked Greenfield with one out in the sixth, but the Buckeye defense stepped up to turn an inning-ending double play, 4-6-3.
Unfortunately for the Buckeyes, the offense could never get anything going. They did not get their first hit until the third when Justin Miller (Fr., Dayton, Va./Turner Ashby) singled to right center with one out. Penn State starter Mark Wyner struck out Jacob Howell (Jr., Ashland, Ohio/Ashland) and got Matt Angle (So., Whitehall, Ohio/Whitehall-Yearling) to fly out and end the inning.
Eric Fryer (So., Reynoldsburg, Ohio/Reynoldsburg) led off the fourth inning with a double down the right-field line, but after a one-out walk by Jedidiah Stephen (Sr., Caldwell, Ohio/Shenandoah), J.B. Shuck (Fr., Galion, Ohio/Galion) grounded into a double play to end the inning. In the fifth, Schirtzinger singled through the left side with one out, but Miller grounded into a 6-3 double play to end the inning.
When Howell drew a walk to start the sixth, Angle bunted him over to second. After a flyout to shallow right-center field, Ronnie Bourquin (Jr., Canton, Ohio/Canton South) put his team on the board with a single through the left side to plate Howell and pull the Buckeyes with two runs, 3-1.
Luebke pitched himself out of a bases-loaded jam in the top of the seventh inning to give Ohio State a chance in its final at bat. Luebke (6-4) gave up a single and a double with one out and then issued a two-out free pass to Cavagnaro, before recording his ninth strikeout, equaling his career high. The complete game was Luebke’s seventh straight, all in Big Ten play.
Zoeller hit a one-out home run in the bottom of the seventh to pull within the one-run final. The shot to right was his fifth of the season. A lineout and a fly out to right ended the game.
Ohio State (33-19 overall, 17-12 in the Big Ten) out-hit Penn State (20-34, 13-17) 5-4, but the difference in the game was the run the Nittany Lions scored in the first inning when the Buckeye defense should have been out of the inning.
Wyner improved to 3-8 on the year after allowing just the two runs on five hits in his 7.0-inning complete game. He struck out four and walked three.
The second game of the doubleheader immediately follows the conclusion of this game, while the series wraps up Sunday with a single game at 1:05 p.m. Both games will be broadcast on AM 920 WMNI.
