Ohio State Makes Quick Work of Oakland, 8-0, in Game Two – Ohio State Buckeyes
5/3/2006 12:00:00 AM | Softball
May 3, 2006
Box Score
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Scoring at least one run for a school-record 27th-consecutive game, the Ohio State softball team needed only an hour and one minute to finish off Oakland, 8-0, in five innings Wednesday in the second game of a doubleheader at Buckeye Field. Junior Jamee Juarez threw her 18th-career shutout and allowed only one hit as the Buckeyes (37-18, 11-5 Big Ten) put the wraps on back-to-back undefeated home non-conference seasons, finishing the 2006 campaign 13-0 at Buckeye Field against non-Big Ten teams and 19-2 overall.
Oakland (25-26, 11-9 Mid-Continent Conference) mustered just one hit against Juarez (La Puente, Calif./Wilson), who improves to 16-9 this season with five shutouts. The outing marked her 14th complete game of the season and the 49th of her career, which now includes five one-hitters. She struck out 10 Grizzlies for her sixth double-digit strikeout performance of the season.
In its final home games of the season, Ohio State improves to 96-10 in non-conference games at Buckeye Field under 10th-year head coach Linda Kalafatis.
“We haven’t always come out with the intensity you need in these midweek games, but our girls were fired up tonight,” Kalafatis said. “We can’t win the Big Ten so we have set some new goals and the kids are responding. We haven’t performed well in the circle or in the field the last few weeks, but we did tonight and that will be the difference for us down the stretch.”
For OSU seniors Chelsea Baker (Gahanna, Ohio/DeSales), Billie Carder (Celina, Ohio/Celina), Stacy Hibma (Buena Park, Calif./Valley Christian) and Nicole Lancaster (Magnolia, Ohio/Sandy Valley), it was their final game at Buckeye Field. The Buckeyes were 7-0 in non-conference home games last year and together with this season have registered the only two such perfect non-Big Ten home seasons in program history. The Buckeyes scored three runs in the third inning, one in the fourth and four in the fifth for the mercy rule win, marking OSU’s quickest game since game durations were first kept in 1998. The previous shortest game in OSU records was a 10-0 win over Ohio, April 11, 1998, that took 1:13.
Ohio State sophomore Brittany Vanderink (Hiram, Ohio/Crestwood), the current Big Ten Player of the Week, went 3-for-3 to extend her career-best hitting streak to 10 games, during which time she is hitting .600 (21-for-35).
Juarez also went 3-for-3 with a double and two RBI, upping her average to .458 (11-for-24) in her last eight games. Junior Megan Schwab (Glendale, Ariz./Sunrise Mountain) also hit a double, keeping herself and Juarez tied for the team lead in doubles with 11 each. Carder and junior Lauren Daykin (Melbourne, Australia/Manatee C.C., Fla.) also doubled.
Carder, hitting .375 (15-for-40) in her last 13 games, totaled three RBI in the doubleheader to take over the team lead in that department with 34.
Ohio State will wrap up the regular season on the road this weekend with single games at Penn State at 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
### GO BUCKS! ###
