Buckeyes Drop Game 1 to Cowboys – Ohio State Buckeyes
5/11/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
COLUMBUS, Ohio– Ohio State dropped the first game of a two-game series against nationally-ranked Oklahoma State, 16-3, Tuesday in front of 848 fans at Bill Davis Stadium. The two teams conclude their midweek series Wednesday at 6:35 p.m.
“We played a very good baseball team tonight,” head coach Greg Beals said. “We got a lesson on what a Top 25 team is like. Tomorrow we need to come out with a little more fight. We need to play aggressively and our pitchers need to attack the bottom half of the strike zone.”
The Cowboys, 32-15 and among the Top 25 teams in the nation in all four major polls including a No. 19 ranking by Baseball America, came into the game as the No. 2 hitting team in the Big Twelve Conference and they backed that ranking up by registering 20 hits against three Ohio State pitchers. Leading 3-0, the Cowboys scored three in the fourth and five in the fifth to build its advantage.
Josh Dezse and Matt Streng each had two hits and Ohio State had seven for the game.
Cowboy starter Andrew Heck pitched 6.1 innings to pick up the victory and improve to 3-1 on the season. Zach Johnson and Jared Womack had home runs for the Cowboys. Johnson’s two-run shot in the third increased the lead to 3-0 and Womack hit a three-run shot in the fifth to make the score 12-0. The duo combined for 10 RBI and Johnson also scored three times.
Ohio State, now 21-22, scored three runs in the seventh to chase Heck. David Corna was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. Joe Ciamacco had an RBI fielder’s choice and Tyler Engle’s grounder was misplayed, but the run would have scored regardless for an Engle RBI.
Game Notes & Random Thoughts from the Ball Park:
- A special thank you to Daniel Rako for spending some time with the baseball team prior to the game. Daniel is a 7th-grader at New Albany Middle School and an avid baseball and Buckeye fan who always does his best in school. He is a brave and strong 13-year-old, as well. He faces an 18th surgery this summer because of complications from spina bifida. The team was thrilled to meet him and wishes him the best this summer.
- Brian DeLucia recorded his ninth outfield assist of the season by throwing out Luis Uribe at third base in the sixth inning. DeLucia is tied for eighth nationally in outfield assists.
- Ohio State had won the three previous meetings on the ball diamond against Oklahoma State. Included was an 8-2 win on June 18, 1966: the championship game of the 20th College World Series.
- For the second time in the last week, a reddish food substance has landed on the khakis. Tomato from a small square of pizza was the villain prior to Game 3 of the Michigan series. Today…lutenica! Lu-what? Pronounced loo-TANG-kuh, lutenica is a condiment-like spread made from red pepper, tomato, egg plant, yellow pepper and olive oil. See Vlade for more info.
- Lutenica the villain – it is a bright red – will absolutely dominate any pair of khakis it lands on. But the friendly lutenica…oh my, is it ever good on a flaky veggie croissant with lettuce, sprouts, cucumber, red onion and a slice of cheese.
- Kyle Sutton, a 2006 Ohio State graduate from the athletics training program was at the game today…wearing an Oklahoma State shirt. That’s because Kyle went to the orange OSU for graduate school and worked with the Cowboy baseball team. He is the athletics trainer at Westerville Central High School.
