Buckeyes rally twice, beat Minnesota 10-9 on Howell single in 11th to advance to Big Ten Tournament final – Ohio State Buckeyes
5/26/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 26, 2007
Box Score .PDF
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – In a game that lasted over four hours long, Ohio State twice rallied from multi-run deficits and then got a Jacob Howell infield single in the bottom of the 11th to defeat second-seeded Minnesota, 10-9, Friday and advance to the final of the Big Ten Tournament.
The Buckeyes will face the winner of the Minnesota-Penn State game at 7:05 p.m. Saturday at Ray Fisher Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich. The Gophers and Nittany Lions play at 3:35 p.m. and the winner of that game must beat undefeated OSU twice for the tournament title.
Ohio State has now knocked of the top three seeds in the tournament, beating No. 3 seed Penn State, 10-3, Wednesday and No. 1 seed Michigan, 4-2, Thursday.
With the game tied at nine in the bottom of the 11th, Chris Macke (Jr., Terre Haute, Ind./Terre Haute North) reached on a one-out walk. Freshman Cory Rupert (Fr., Mansfield, Ohio/Mansfield Madison) followed with a single to right center, advancing Macke to third. Cory Kovanda (Fr., Columbus, Ohio/Worthington Kilbourne) struck out swinging, brining Jacob Howell (Sr., Ashland, Ohio/Ashland) to the plate with two outs. Howell hit a slow roller up the middle that the Minnesota second baseman fielded and threw to first but it wasn’t in time to get the speedy Howell as Macke scored from third for the winning run.
Howell went 5-for-7 in the game and scored three times as the Buckeyes rallied from 5-2 and 9-5 deficits in the game. Rory Meister (Jr., Mansfield, Ohio/Mansfield Madison) picked up the win, pitching the final 2.2 innings for OSU. He gave up no runs on one hit, walking one and striking out one to improve to 4-6 on the year.
The Buckeyes went on top first, scoring a run in the bottom of the third. Howell smacked a two-out double down the right field line and Tony Kennedy (Jr., Bloomington, Ind./Bloomington South) followed with an RBI single to center to score Howell and make it 1-0.
Minnesota answered right away with two runs in the top of the fourth on a two-run home run, giving the Gophers a 2-1 lead.
Ohio State tied the score right away with a run in the bottom of the fourth. Ryan Dew (Fr., Croton, Ohio/Worthington Kilbourne), Macke and Rupert tallied three straight singles with Rupert’s single driving home Dew to tie the game at 2-all.
The Golden Gophers would regain the lead, 5-2, with three runs in the top of the fifth.
The Buckeyes would rally to tie the game at 5-all with three runs in the bottom of the fifth. Howell singled to start off the inning and moved to second on a stolen base. Kennedy then reached on an error by the shortstop putting runners on first and third. Eric Fryer (Jr., Reynoldsburg, Ohio/Reynoldsburg) hit into a fielder’s choice but drove in Howell. An error by the shortstop allowed another OSU run to score and Dew singled in the third Buckeye run of the inning to tie the game.
The tie game didn’t last long as Minnesota continued their scoring surge, putting up three more runs in the top of the sixth and one in the seventh for a 9-5 advantage.
Ohio State chipped away at the Gophers lead with two runs in the bottom of the seventh. Fryer and Jason Zoeller (Sr., Verona, Pa./Shady Side Academy) started off the inning with back to back singles and Dew reached on a walk to load the bases with one out. Macke walked to bring in Fryer and Rupert followed with a sacrifice fly to make it 9-7 after seven.
The Buckeyes equalized the game at nine with two more runs in the bottom of the eighth. Howell and Kennedy led off the inning with singles and moved to second and third on a throwing error by the shortstop. Fryer followed with a grounder to short that scored Howell but Kennedy was thrown out at third. Zoeller doubled down the left field line leaving Fryer at third and Zoeller at second before Justin Miller (So., Dayton, Va./Turner Ashby) singled to tie the game.
Ohio State held the Gophers scoreless in the ninth, 10th and 11th, setting the stage for Howell’s heroics.
J.B. Shuck (So., Galion, Ohio/Galion) started the game for the Buckeyes and went 4.1 innings, giving up five earned runs. He walked one and struck out two in a no decision. Trey Fausnaugh (Sr., Circleville, Ohio/Westfall) relieved Shuck and went two innings, allowing four runs, three earned. Eric Best (Fr., Lewis Center, Ohio/Olentangy Liberty) pitched 0.2 innings for the Buckeyes and Josh Barrera (So., Somerset, Ohio/Sheridan) 1.1 innings before Meister entered.
Ethan Vogt started for Minnesota and allowed five runs, three earned, in 4.1 innings of work. The Gophers also pitched Kyle Carr, Josh Oslin and Bill Johnson, with Oslin getting the loss. Johnson relieved Oslin with Howell coming to bat.
The Buckeyes had 18 hits on the night, Minnesota 17. Zoeller had three hits in the game, with Kennedy, Fryer, Dew and Rupert all notching two hits. Fryer, Miller and Rupert had two RBI each.
