Matt Angle’s Two-Run Single Pushes Ohio State Past Indiana, 6-4, Friday before 3,957 at Bill Davis Stadium – Ohio State Buckeyes
4/20/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 20, 2007
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COLUMBUS, Ohio – Matt Angle’s two-out, two-run single in the top of the eighth broke a 3-all tie and Ohio State held on for a 6-4 win over Indiana Friday in the first game of a four-game Big Ten series before 3,957 fans at Bill Davis Stadium.
The win pushes OSU to 20-10 overall and 5-6 in the Big Ten. Indiana fell to 14-19 and 4-9 in conference play. The Buckeyes and Hoosiers continue their Big Ten series at 1:05 p.m. Saturday with a seven-inning doubleheader. The series wraps up with a single nine-inning game beginning at 1:05 p.m. Sunday.
Indiana tied the game at 3-all with a run in the top of the seventh but what was a one-run game all evening turned into a three-run OSU lead as the Buckeyes pushed three across in the bottom of the eighth.
Tony Kennedy (Jr., Bloomington, Ind./Bloomington South), who was 3-for-4 on the night, led off the inning with an 11-pitch single and advanced to second on a ground out. Freshman Cory Kovanda (Columbus, Ohio/Worthington Kilbourne) was hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second and a ground out to second moved Kennedy and Kovanda to second and third with two outs, setting the stage for Matt Angle (Jr., Whitehall, Ohio/Whitehall-Yearling). Angle followed with a liner to right center, scoring Kennedy and Kovanda for a 5-3 lead. Eric Fryer (Jr., Reynoldsburg, Ohio/Reynoldsburg) followed Angle’s single with a laser past the third baseman and into the left field corner for a RBI double and a 6-3 OSU lead.
Cory Luebke (Jr., Maria Stein, Ohio/Marion Local), Ohio State’s starting pitcher, took the mound in the top of the ninth but was relieved by OSU closer Jake Hale (So., Albany, Ohio/Alexander) after the first two Indiana runners reached base on an error and a single. Hale’s first batter singled in a run to make it 6-4 but the big right-hander retired the next three Hoosiers for his eighth save of the year. Luebke went a solid eight innings, giving up just four runs, three earned, on eight hits. He struck out six and walked two to improve to 5-0 on the year. It was his first Big Ten win of the season.
Ohio State got on the board first with a run in the bottom of the third. Kovanda led off the inning with a single and moved to second on a Jacob Howell (Sr., Ashland, Ohio/Ashland) sacrifice. Fryer walked to put runners on first and second and J.B. Shuck (So., Galion, Ohio/Galion) followed with a hard grounder to the Indiana second baseman that he was unable to handle that allowed Kovanda to score.
In the top of the fifth, Indiana strung together four straight hits with one out to take a 2-1 lead. But the Buckeyes responded with a run in the bottom of the fifth to tie the game 2-all. Kovanda led off the home half of the fifth with a bunt single. Howell then hit a slow roller to the second baseman that he bobbled before trying to force out Kovanda at second but the throw was too late. Angle moved the runners to second and third with a sacrifice and Fryer followed with an RBI ground out to first base.
The Buckeyes took a 3-2 lead with a run in the bottom of the sixth. Kennedy singled to right with one out and after a pop out, Kovanda kept the inning alive with hit-and-run single to right that moved Kennedy to third. Howell followed with an RBI single to right.
Tyler Tufts took the loss for Indiana, going 7.2 innings. Joe Vicini pitched 0.1 innings for the Hoosiers.
The Buckeyes had 11 hits in the game and the Hoosiers 9. Kovanda was 3-for-3 in the game and Angle and Fryer each had two RBI.
Because of the Ohio State spring football game tomorrow fans are encouraged to arrive early as baseball parking will only be available in the scarlet lot behind the right field wall of Bill Davis Stadium by the Jack Nicklaus Museum.
