Baseball Falls 8-5 at Illinois in Opening Game Sunday – Ohio State Buckeyes
4/8/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 8, 2007
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CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – After two days of cancelled games because of near-freezing temperatures, Ohio State and Illinois finally played Sunday with Illinois winning, 8-5, in the first game of a two-game series at Illinois Field. The Buckeyes and Fighting Illini will play a seven-inning game Sunday to wrap up the series.
Ohio State is 17-5 overall and 3-2 in Big Ten action, while Illinois is 11-11 overall and 3-2 in the conference. The Buckeyes will play a home non-conference game Wednesday vs. Miami (Ohio) at 6:35 p.m. at Bill Davis Stadium before playing host to Michigan in a key Big Ten home series Friday-Sunday (April 13-15).
Illinois jumped out to an early lead, scoring one run in the bottom of the first. The Illini extended their lead to 4-0 with three more runs in the bottom of the second inning. The home team added another run in the bottom of the third to take a 5-0 lead.
The Buckeyes got on the board in the top of the fourth. J.B. Shuck (So., Galion, Ohio/Galion) earned a one-out walk followed by a walk by Justin Miller (So., Dayton, Va./Turner Ashby). After a fly out to center, Tony Kennedy (Jr., Bloomington, Ind./Bloomington South) delivered a two-out single to make it 5-1.
Ohio State cut a little more into the Illini lead with a run in the top of the fifth to make it 5-2. Freshman Cory Kovanda (Columbus, Ohio/Worthington Kilbourne) and Jacob Howell (Sr., Ashland, Ohio/Ashland) led off the inning with back-to-back singles. After a sacrifice bunt moved the runners to second and third, Eric Fryer (Jr., Reynoldsburg, Ohio/Reynoldsburg) grounded out to short for an RBI.
The top of the sixth was more of the same for OSU as the Buckeyes tallied three runs to battle all the way back from a 5-0 deficit to tie the game at five. Freshman Ryan Dew (Croton, Ohio/Worthington Kilbourne) led off the inning with a double. Kennedy followed with a ground ball to short. Illinois attempted to catch Dew off of second, but everyone was safe. Jason Zoeller (Sr., Verona, Pa./Shady Side Academy) moved the runners to second and third with a sacrifice bunt. After a Kovanda strike out, Howell worked a walk to load the bases with two outs. Senior center fielder Matt Angle (Whitehall, Ohio/Whitehall-Yearling) then singled through the right side, driving in two runs to make it 5-4. Fryer followed with a single to left to tie the game.
Junior Cory Luebke (Maria Stein, Ohio/Marion Local) started his seventh game of the season, pitching seven innings, and did not get a decision. The lefty gave up five runs, only one earned, struck out three and walked none.
Illinois took advantage of Luebke’s departure by scoring three runs in the bottom of the eighth to regain the lead, 8-5. Red-shirt freshman Eric Best (Lewis Center, Ohio/Olentangy Liberty) relieved Luebke but was unable to keep the Illini off the board. Best pitched 0.1 innings, giving up three runs, one earned, on one hit, but was hurt by an error on a potential double play ball that would have gotten OSU out of the inning without surrendering a run.
Junior Rory Meister (Mansfield, Ohio/Mansfield Madison) relieved Best and retired the final two Illini batters. OSU was unable to rally in the top of the ninth.
Tanner Roark started for Illinois and pitched 6.0 innings. Roark did not get the decision either, giving up five earned runs on eight hits. Mike Stankiewicz relieved Roark in the seventh and pitched two scoreless innings to earn the win. Jake Toohey pitched the ninth for his second save of the season.
The Buckeyes had 10 hits in the game and Illinois 11.
