Ohio State opens Big Ten play with 12-7 win over Iowa – Ohio State Buckeyes
3/30/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 30, 2007
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COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio State baseball team opened up Big Ten action with a 12-7 win over Iowa Friday at Bill Davis Stadium. The Buckeyes have won 14 straight games to improve to 15-3 on the year and 1-0 in conference play.
The 14-game winning streak OSU is currently on is the team’s longest since a 17-game run early in the 2001 season.
Ohio State and Iowa will play games two and three of the four-game series Saturday starting at 1:05 p.m. at Bill Davis Stadium. Saturday’s two seven-inning games will be followed a final nine-inning game on Sunday at 1:05 p.m. The Buckeyes took three of four from the Hawkeyes last season.
The Buckeyes jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first as sophomore J.B. Shuck (Galion, Ohio/Galion) singled home the run with two outs to extend his hitting streak to 15 games.
Ohio State extended its lead to 4-0 with three runs in the bottom of the second. An Iowa error started the inning off and was followed by an RBI double by Tony Kennedy (Jr., Bloomington, Ind./Bloomington South). The next batter, senior Jason Zoeller (Verona, Pa./Shady Side Academy), homered to left to give OSU a four-run cushion.
But the Hawkeyes would battle back, scoring three runs in the fourth and two more in the sixth to take a 5-4 lead and chase OSU starter Cory Luebke (Jr., Maria Stein, Ohio/Marion Local). Luebke went 5.2 innings, giving up five runs (two earned) on eight hits while striking out six and walking one. Redshirt freshman Eric Best (Lewis Center, Ohio/Olentangy Liberty) relieved Luebke and got the final out of the sixth.
The lead was short lived for Iowa as the Buckeyes stormed back with a seven-run sixth inning. OSU sent 13 batters to the plate in the bottom of the sixth to take an 11-5 lead. Iowa hurt themselves with three walks and a passed ball in the inning, while the Buckeyes had five hits. Eric Fryer (Jr., Reynoldsburg, Ohio/Reynoldsburg) and Shuck had RBI singles, Michael Arp (So., Reynoldsburg, Ohio/Reynoldsburg) an RBI triple and Zoeller a two-RBI single. Matt Angle (Jr., Whitehall, Ohio/Whitehall-Yearling) added an RBI ground out and Justin Miller (So., Dayton, Va./Turner Ashby) an RBI sacrifice fly in the inning.
The Buckeyes tacked on an additional run in the seventh on an RBI single by Miller to make it 12-5. Iowa tried to make things interesting by scoring a run in the eighth and a run in the ninth to make it 12-7 but the Buckeyes held on for the win. Best pitched 1.2 innings for his first career win, giving up one earned run. Darren Sizemore (So., Hamilton, Ohio/Ross/Georgetown University) pitched the final 1.2 innings and gave up one earned run before closing out the game.
Freshman Cory Kovanda (Columbus, Ohio/Worthington Kilbourne) had a team-high three hits on the night going 3-for-4, while Zoeller knocked in a team-high four runs. Every Buckeye starter but one had at least one hit in the game. Shuck, Kennedy, Miller, Fryer and Zoeller all had two hits.
Andrew Porter was the losing pitcher for the Hawkeyes, giving up five earned runs in 0.2 innings of relief action. Starter Steve Turnbull gave up five runs, three earned, in five innings of work. Iowa used four pitchers in the game. The Buckeyes had 15 hits in the game and Iowa nine.
