Sixteen Hits Lead Ohio State past Western Michigan 10-1 – Ohio State Buckeyes
3/10/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 10, 2007
Box Score
Box Score .PDF
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Ohio State scored five runs in the first, added another five in the seventh and got a complete-game, three-hitter from starter Cory Luebke to claim a 10-1 victory over Western Michigan Saturday in the Kennel Club Classic at Harmon Stadium on the campus of the University of North Florida.
The visiting Buckeyes had scored five runs before the first out of the game was made. Jacob Howell (Sr., Ashland, Ohio/Ashland) got things started with a single through the left side and Matt Angle (Jr., Whitehall, Ohio/Whitehall-Yearling) beat out a bunt to put runners at first and second for Eric Fryer (Jr., Reynoldsburg, Ohio/Reynoldsburg), who singled just inside the third-base bag to plate Howell.
J.B. Shuck (So., Galion, Ohio/Galion) drove in the second run and after a base hit by Justin Miller (So., Dayton, Va./Turner Ashby), Ryan Dew (Fr., Croton, Ohio/Worthington Kilbourne) plated two more with his single through the right side. Tony Kennedy (Jr., Bloomington, Ind./Bloomington South) reached on a shot deep in the hole at short and Miler was able to score. Jason Zoeller (Sr., Verona, Pa./Shady Side Academy) reached on a fielder’s choice before Western Michigan turned a double play to get out of the inning without further damage. Luebke, a junior from Maria Stein, Ohio (Marion Local), had a 5-0 lead before he threw his first pitch. He walked his first two batters and got a strikeout and a fielder’s choice before Kennedy could not come up with the ground ball to third off the bat of Matt Abro. As a result, Zach Gentile was able to score an unearned run. Kyle Galbraith flied out to end the inning.
Luebke settled down after that and did not allow a hit until the third. He worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the sixth and retired the final 10 batters of the game to earn his second victory of the season (2-0). He allowed just three hits, struck out four and walked three in pitching his first complete game of the season and the 10th of his career. Western Michigan’s lone run was unearned.
Luebke’s mastery of the Broncos combined with the Buckeyes early offense, the game already was out of reach, but Ohio State used a big seventh inning, getting five more runs on six hits and using the first of two Western Michigan errors, on its way to a 10-1 victory.
Howell led off the seventh with a single that fell in front of right fielder Pedro Dager, but WMU starter Billy Morrison got a line out and a strikeout before the Buckeyes got the best of him. Howell stole second, went to third on a balk and scored on an infield single by Shuck. Miller followed with a double to left-center to score Shuck from first to make it a 7-1 game. Dew reached on a throwing error by the Broncos second baseman that pulled first baseman Nathan Marquardt off the bag. Miller was able to score on the play.
Kennedy followed with an infield single to short and RBI singles by Zoeller and Cory Rupert (Fr., Mansfield, Ohio/Mansfield Madison) gave Ohio State all of its runs.
Ohio State finished with 16 hits, including three by Shuck, who was 3-for-5 with two RBI and two runs scored. Howell, Miller, Dew, Kennedy and Zoeller each had two hits and every starter had at least one hit. Miller’s double in the seventh was the only extra-base hit of the game and the weekend. In the 11-inning, 3-2 victory at North Florida Friday night, all of the Buckeyes’ 15 hits were singles.
Luebke finished with only four strikeouts but had great success against Western Michigan.
He sat the Broncos down order in the second and after they got their first hit to lead off the third, Luebke got three straight outs to end the inning. He then retired the batters in order in the fourth and fifth and two in the sixth for 11 straight. In the sixth, he gave up back-to-back two-out hits and a walk to load the bases before getting Galbraith to pop up in foul ground near the third-base dugout to end the inning.
Morrison took the loss to fall to 1-1. He allowed all 10 runs (seven earned) on 16 hits in 6.2 innings. Brett Newsome allowed only two base runners (error and hit by pitch) in pitching the final 2.1 innings. Gentile, Abro and Chris Lewis had Western Michigan’s three hits.
Ohio State (5-3) concludes play at the Kennel Club Classic Sunday with an 11 a.m. first pitch vs. Connecticut.
