Ohio State Downs Purdue, 6-3, Sunday, Wins Three of Four From Boilermakers in West Lafayette, Ind. – Ohio State Buckeyes
4/29/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 29, 2007
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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Ohio State downed Purdue, 6-3, Sunday in the final game of a four-game Big Ten series at Lambert Field in West Lafayette, Ind.
The Buckeyes took three of four in the series to move into a third-place tie in the conference with Penn State, just 2.5 games behind second-place Minnesota. Ohio State won game one, 6-2, Friday, lost the first game Saturday, 16-0, and won game two Saturday, 3-2.
Ohio State improved to 26-12 overall and 11-7 in Big Ten action, while Purdue fell to 18-20 overall and 8-11 in league play. OSU returns home to play host to Akron at 6:35 p.m. Wednesday in a non-conference game at Bill Davis Stadium before welcoming Michigan State to Columbus Friday-Sunday for a four-game Big Ten series.
The Buckeyes opened up the scoring in game four, pushing one run across in the top of the first. Matt Angle (Jr., Whitehall, Ohio/Whitehall-Yearling) got things started with a one-out triple over the center fielder’s head and scored on an RBI single by Eric Fryer (Jr., Reynoldsburg, Ohio/Reynoldsburg).
The lead grew to 2-0 as the Buckeyes added a run in the top of the fourth. Jason Zoeller (Sr., Verona, Pa./Shady Side Academy) hit a one-out double to left center that got lost in the sun and Cory Kovanda (Fr., Croton, Ohio/Worthington Kilbourne) followed with an infield single to shortstop, leaving runners on first and third. Jacob Howell (Sr., Ashland, Ohio/Ashland) drove in Zoeller with a sacrifice fly to center.
Zoeller stretched OSU’s lead to 4-0 with a two-out, two-run home run in the top of the eighth. Tony Kennedy (Jr., Bloomington, Ind./Bloomington South) reached on a two-out single before Zoeller’s home run.
Ohio State starter J.B. Shuck (So., Galion, Ohio/Galion) cruised into the eighth inning, giving up just two hits through seven, at one point retiring 11 consecutive Purdue batters. Shuck ran into trouble in the bottom of the eighth. The Boilermakers led off the inning with a solo home run, and after the next batter singled, PU hit its second home run of the inning to make it a 4-3 contest. Shuck walked the next batter and OSU went to the bullpen, bringing in senior Trey Fausnaugh (Circleville, Ohio/Westfall). Fausnaugh retired the next three batters to keep it a one-run Ohio State lead.
The Buckeyes responded in the top of the ninth with two runs to make it 6-3. Howell reached on an error by the second baseman and moved to third on an Angle single. Fryer followed with an RBI single to left that moved Angle to third. After a strikeout, Justin Miller (So., Dayton, Va./Turner Ashby) singled to drive in Angle.
Fausnaugh gave up two singles in the ninth but the Buckeyes turned a double play and Fausnaugh got the final PU batter to fly to center for his first save of the season. Shuck improved to 3-1 on the year. He gave up just five hits, walking two and striking out four.
Matt Jansen took the loss for Purdue, giving up two earned runs in 6.0 innings. The Boilermakers used four pitchers on the day.
The Buckeyes had 13 hits in the game and the Boilermakers seven. Angle, Fryer, Miller, Kennedy, Zoeller and Kovanda all had two hits in the game, while Fryer and Zoeller knocked in two runs each.
