Baseball: Buckeyes Win Service Academies Spring Classic – Ohio State Buckeyes
2/24/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
MILLINGTON, Tenn. Junior captain Justin Miller drove home the winning run with an eighth-inning double his fourth double of the tournament that scored Tony Kennedy and enabled Ohio State to win the Service Academies Spring Classic Sunday with a 6-5 victory over Seton Hall. Miller, who started at three different infield positions during the tournament, was named tournament MVP as he collected six hits and four RBI. The Buckeyes are 3-0 for the first time in six years.
Like the first two wins of the season 7-3 over Arkansas State and 1-0 over Memphis the game against Seton Hall was anything but easy. Ohio State trailed virtually the entire game and had to come back from 3-0, 4-1 and 5-3 deficits to get the victory. True freshman Drew Rucinski (1-0) got the win in relief and senior Rory Meister got the final three outs to record his first save of the season and the 14th of his career.
“It is a little early in the season to be playing one-run ball games,” head coach Bob Todd said, “but even with three freshmen on the field at the end of the game we showed poise and we competed.”
Todd shuffled his infield lineup due to a hamstring injury to third baseman Brian DeLucia (suffered against Memphis) and second baseman Cory Kovanda unable to make the trip to the stadium due to illness (he did arrive midway through the game). So Miller started at third, the sophomore Cory Rupert at short and true freshmen Tyler Engle, Ryan Meade and Dan Burkhart at second, first and behind the plate, respectively.
Seton Hall touched Ohio State starter Josh Edgin for three runs in the first inning off four hits. Ohio State came back with a run in its half of the first. Ryan Dew doubled Kennedy to third and then scored on Miller’s grounder to short.
Edgin settled down and allowed only one more run unearned and one hit over the next three innings. He turned the game over to Rucinski at the start of the fifth with Ohio State trailing 4-3. Rucinski, from Tulsa, Okla. and in his first collegiate action, pitched well with a couple 1-2-3 innings while allowing just one unearned run in 4.1 innings of work.
Ohio State didn’t record a hit but scored two runs in the third inning to close to within 4-3 as three Seton Hall errors helped the cause. Trailing 5-3 later on in the sixth inning, Ohio Sate tied the score on a leadoff home run by Michael Arp the junior’s first collegiate home run and a towering double off the left field wall by Kennedy that scored J.B. Shuck from first base.
After taking the lead in the eighth inning, the senior Meister came in with a man on and got three straight batters to ground into infield outs. He helped his cause by assisting on two of the putouts, including stopping a rocket up the middle that would have scored the tying run.
The Buckeyes take their 3-0 record to College Station, Texas, this week for games against Texas A&M, Arkansas and Louisiana Tech Friday, Saturday and Sunday, respectively.
Game Notes and Good Stuff from the Classic:
- Ryan Dew continues to make terrific plays in right field. He added another diving catch against Seton Hall and leads all outfielders with seven putouts.
- Brian DeLucia (1.000; 5-for-5), Justin Miller (.500; 6-for-12 with four RBI) and J.B. Shuck (.400; 4-for-10) led the Buckeye hitters.
- As a team, Ohio State hit .264 in the tournament.
- Pitching was the story for Ohio State during this first weekend. The staff ERA after the first three games is 1.33.
- Each of Ohio State’s three starters lasted at least four innings and they combined to allow just three earned runs in 14.0 innings.
- Freshmen relievers Dean Wolosianski, Alex Wimmers and Drew Rucinski combined to pitch 10.0 innings and only gave up one earned run and one walk while striking out seven. Sophomore Eric Best pitched 2.0 innings of no-hit, no-run relief.
- Ohio State has started out 3-0 only four times under coach Bob Todd: 2008, 2002, 1997 and 1991. Perhaps this universal starting date is already working.
###OhioStateBuckeyes.com###
