Ohio State Plunks North Florida, 8-7, Tuesday at Bill Davis Stadium – Ohio State Buckeyes
5/15/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 15, 2007
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COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio State freshman Cory Kovanda was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth, giving the Buckeyes an 8-7 win over North Florida Tuesday in the first game of a two-game non-conference series at Bill Davis Stadium. The Buckeyes and Ospreys wrap up the series at 12:05 p.m. Wednesday at Bill Davis Stadium as part of Columbus Public School Day.
The Buckeyes are 31-19 on the year, North Florida is 23-29. After the UNF series, OSU heads to Penn State Friday-Sunday for the final Big Ten series of the season. Ohio State must win one of its four games in the series to qualify for the Big Ten tournament.
With the game tied at 7-all, Justin Miller (So., Dayton, Va./Turner Ashby) led off the bottom of the ninth with a triple off the center field wall. North Florida pitcher Tyler Stohr intentionally walked the next two batters to load the bases, bringing Cory Rupert (Fr., Mansfield, Ohio/Mansfield Madison) to the plate. Stohr nearly hit Rupert on his first pitch before eventually striking him out and sending Kovanda (Fr., Columbus, Ohio/Worthington Kilbourne) to bat. Stohr then hit Kovanda to give OSU the win.
Ohio State took a 1-0 lead with a run in the bottom of the first. Matt Angle (Jr., Whitehall, Ohio/Whitehall-Yearling) hit a one-out double and came around to score on a two-out single by J.B. Shuck (So., Galion, Ohio/Galion).
In the second, the Buckeyes added a second run on a Rupert RBI single, scoring Brian DeLucia (Fr., Columbus, Ohio/Bishop Watterson) who had reached on a fielders’ choice.
The 2-0 lead didn’t last long as North Florida took a 3-2 lead in the top of the third on a three-run home run.
The Buckeyes regained the lead, 5-3, with a three run bottom of the third. Eric Fryer (Jr., Reynoldsburg, Ohio/Reynoldsburg) was hit by a pitch with two outs and then OSU strung together four straight hits. Jason Zoeller (Sr., Verona, Pa./Shady Side Academy) drove in two runs and DeLucia one.
The back and forth game continued as the Ospreys tied it at 5-all with two runs in the fourth and took the lead, 6-5, with a run in the top of the six.
But OSU retook the lead with two runs in the bottom of the sixth. Kovanda led off the winning with a walk and two outs later Fryer homered to left for a 7-6 lead.
North Florida tied the game again with a run in the top of the seventh at 7-all, setting the stage for the Ohio State ninth.
Theron Minium (Fr., New Cumberland, Pa./Cedar Cliff) started the game for the Buckeyes and went four innings. He gave up five earned runs on eight hits and struck out three. Rory Meister (Jr., Mansfield, Ohio/Mansfield Madison) relieved Minium in the fifth pitched three innings. Meister surrendered two earned runs on two hits, walking three and striking out three. Trey Fausnaugh (Sr., Circleville, Ohio/Westfall) entered in the eighth and went two innings, picking up the win to improve to 2-3 on the year. He allowed one hit with one walk and one strikeout.
Antonio Franzese started the game for UNF and went four innings, giving up five earned runs with one walk. The Ospreys used four pitchers in the game with Stohr getting the loss to fall to 0-6.
Ohio State had 13 hits in the game and North Florida 11. Shuck was 3-for-5 for the Buckeyes and Zoeller had two RBI.
