Ohio State Loses, 5-4, to Louisiana-Lafayette Friday in the first game of the NCAA College Station Regional – Ohio State Buckeyes
6/1/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
June 1, 2007
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COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Louisiana-Lafayette scored a run in the bottom of the ninth to break a 4-all tie and defeat Ohio State, 5-4, Friday in the first game of the NCAA College Station Regional at Olsen Field in College Station, Texas.
The No. 3 seeded Buckeyes, making their 18th NCAA tournament appearance overall and the 12th since 1991, will face the loser of No. 1 seed Texas A&M and No. 4 seed Le Moyne Saturday at 2 p.m. ET. A&M and Le Moyne play at 8 p.m. Friday. Ohio State fell to 37-23 overall, while Louisiana-Lafayette, the No. 2 seed, improved to 44-15 on the year.
If Ohio State wins Saturday, it will play the loser of the winner’s bracket game at 2 p.m. Sunday with the winner advancing to play the undefeated team in the championship Sunday at 8 p.m. If the undefeated team loses, the second championship game will be played Monday at 7:30 p.m. The winner of the regional advances to a best-of-three super regional and will play the winner of the Rice Regional that includes Rice, Prairie View, Baylor and Texas Christian.
Louisiana-Lafayette took an early lead with one run in the top of the first. It remained 1-0 until the top of the third when Ohio State scored three times. Tony Kennedy (Jr., Bloomington, Ind./Bloomington South) and Cory Rupert (Fr., Mansfield, Ohio/Mansfield Madison) led off the inning with back to back singles and moved to third and second, respectively, on a Cory Kovanda (Fr., Columbus, Ohio/Worthington Kilbourne) sacrifice bunt. Jacob Howell (Sr., Ashland, Ohio/Ashland) followed with an RBI single and Matt Angle (Jr., Whitehall, Ohio/Whitehall-Yearling) a two RBI double for a 3-1 OSU advantage.
The Rajin Cajuns responded with three runs in the bottom of the fourth to take a 4-3 lead, but the Buckeyes tied the game at 4-all with a run in the top of the fifth. Kovanda led off the inning with a double and moved to third on a Howell single. After an Angle walk to load the bases, Kovanda scored on an Eric Fryer (Jr., Reynoldsburg, Ohio/Reynoldsburg) RBI ground out to tie the game. The game remained tied until the bottom of the ninth.
Sophomore right-hander Jake Hale (Albany, Ohio/Alexander) started the game for the Buckeyes and went a solid 7.2 innings. He allowed four earned runs on 10 hits, walking four and striking out two. Josh Edgin (Fr., Three Springs, Pa./Mercersburg Academy) relieved Hale with two on and two out in the eighth and hit his only batter to load the bases. Rory Meister (Jr., Mansfield, Ohio/Mansfield Madison) came on for Edgin and got a ground out to end the inning. Meister pitched the ninth for OSU and got the loss, falling to 4-7 on the year.
Danny Farquhar started for Louisiana-Lafayette and only lasted four innings, giving up four earned runs on eight hits. He walked one and struck out three. Matt Pilgreen relieved Farquhar in the fifth and went the remainder of the game for the win. Pilgreen didn’t allow a run in five innings, giving up four hits and striking out two.
The Buckeyes had 12 hits in the game, Louisiana-Lafayette 13. Howell and Justin Miller (So., Dayton, Va./Turner Ashby) each had three hits in the game. Cory Luebke, Big Ten Pitcher of the Year, is expected to start Saturday’s game for the Buckeyes.
