Ohio State Uses 20 Hits to Beat Michigan State 12-3 in Game One of DH – Ohio State Buckeyes
5/6/2006 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 6, 2006
Box Score
LANSING, Mich. – Already leading 3-0, Ohio State scored five runs in the top of the third inning on its way to a 12-3 victory over Michigan State in the first game of a doubleheader Saturday at Oldsmobile Park. The win was the 30th of the season for the Buckeyes, who now are 30-14 overall and 14-8 in the Big Ten.
Designated hitter Chris Macke (So., Terre Haute, Ind./Terre Haute North) drew a walk to lead off the third inning and went to third on a single through the left side by Jason Zoeller (Jr., Verona, Pa./Shady Side Academy). Wes Schirtzinger (Jr., Westerville, Ohio/Westerville South) doubled down the right field line to plate both runners. He went to third when rightfielder Adam Tripp could not coral the ball in the corner. Schirtzinger scored on a sacrifice fly to right by Justin Miller (Fr., Dayton, Va./Turner Ashby).
J.B. Shuck (Fr., Galion, Ohio/Galion) followed with a base hit to left-center and stole second before scoring on a single to center by Matt Angle (So., Whitehall, Ohio/Whitehall-Yearling). After Angle stole his 22nd base of the year, he was hit in by Ronnie Bourquin (Jr., Canton, Ohio/Canton South), who also singled to center to cap the five-run inning that gave Ohio State an 8-0 lead
Zoeller deposited a ball over the left-field fence, about 370 feet from home plate, for the Buckeyes’ lone run of the fourth inning to give his team a nine-run advantage. A two-out RBI single by Shuck netted the 10th run of the game in the sixth when Macke came around to score from second. Macke got his first hit of the game to lead off the inning. Michigan State put an end to the Buckeyes’ shutout bid with two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning after RBI by Kyle Day and Ryan Basham.
Every Buckeye had a hit after Jedidiah Stephen (Sr., Caldwell, Ohio/Shenandoah) doubled with one out in the seventh inning. He went to third on a passed ball and scored on a wild pitch. Macke, who reached on a throwing error by the Michigan State third baseman, went to second on the wild pitch and then scored on Zoeller’s single to left-center, his third hit of the game.
Ohio State had 20 hits for the first time since a 17-10 victory over Lehigh on March 10 when it had a season-high 22 hits. The Buckeyes had 18 hits in the 16-2 victory Friday in the opening game of the series and outscored the Spartans 28-4 and scored in 13 of the 16 innings of the first two games.
Shuck, Angle and Bourquin each had three hits in the game and four others had two hits. Fryer and Schirtzinger each had two RBI
The Buckeyes scored a pair of runs in the top of the first inning. Shuck led off the game with an infield single and went to second when Angle walked. A passed ball moved both runners into scoring position. Shuck scored on an infield single by Eric Fryer (So., Reynoldsburg, Ohio/Reynoldsburg) and then Angle scored on a sacrifice fly by Stephen to give Ohio State a 2-0 lead.
Fryer drove in his second run of the game in the second inning when he singled through the left side to score Miller. Miller singled up the middle with one out and went to second on a base hit by Angle before scoring on Fryer second hit of the game.
OSU starting pitcher Cory Luebke (So., Maria Stein, Ohio/Marion Local) pitched his fifth complete game of the season, all in Big Ten play. He also went the distance in a 4-0 win over Purdue last Saturday. Against the Spartans, he allowed three runs on 11 hits and struck out five with just one walk. He improved to 6-4 on the year. Jeff Gerbe got the loss for Michigan State to fall to 4-5 on the year. He allowed eight runs 10 hits in 2.1 innings.
Michigan State slipped to 21-23 overall and 9-13 in the Big Ten.
The second game of the doubleheader immediately follows this game. The series concludes with a single game Sunday at 1:05 p.m. Both game will be broadcast on AM 920 WMNI and on ohiostatebuckeyes.com.
