Buckeyes Take Series with 3-0 Saturday Win Over Minnesota – Ohio State Buckeyes
5/21/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – Ohio State shut out Minnesota, 3-0, in the rubber game of a three-game set Saturday afternoon at Target Field in Minneapolis. With the win, the Buckeyes finish the season with a 25-25 record, 13-11 in the Big Ten. In addition, Ohio State earns the No. 4 seed in the Big Ten tournament starting Wednesday at Huntington Park in Columbus.
The Buckeyes and Gophers will square off again in the first game of the tournament at 12:05 p.m. Wednesday.
“I’m so proud of the guys and what they have accomplished together so far this season,” head coach Greg Beals said. “The development of this young and inexperienced team has been excellent and winning on the road in an environment that has not been good for this program in the past is huge.”
Freshman starter Greg Greve picked up the win to move to 3-2 on the season, tossing a career-high eight scoreless innings, scattering six hits while striking out five. He did not walk a batter.
“It feels great to throw well for the team,” Greve said. “Our goal all season has been to make the tournament and I’m happy that I was able to put the team in a position to win.”
The Buckeyes first threatened with two down in the top of the second inning. David Corna doubled to left-center, Brad Hallberg walkedand Greg Solomon reached on an infield single off the glove of Minnesota starter Austin Lubinsky to load the bases. However, Lubinsky was able to strike out Tyler Engle swinging on a high fastball to end the Ohio State rally.
Ohio State then took a 1-0 lead in the fourth, taking advantage of a Golden Gopher miscue. Josh Dezse reached on a fielding error by Minnesota third baseman Kyle Geason and Matt Streng followed with a single through the right side. After Corna moved the runners to second and third with a sacrifice bunt, Hallberg hit a fly ball down the right field line that was deep enough to plate Dezse for the sacrifice fly and give the Buckeyes the lead.
The Buckeyes then extended the lead to 3-0 in the sixth when Dezse launched a two-run home run into the left-center field bleachers to bring home Ryan Cypret, who had led off the inning with a single to right. It was the fourth home run of the season for the Buckeye first baseman, tying him for the team lead with Streng.
In the meantime, Greve was cruising through six scoreless frames, giving up four singles and striking out four while throwing just 68 pitches (51 strikes). The freshman gave up a one-out single to Geason in the seventh but rolled a 6-4-3 double play to get out of the jam. He then gave up a two-out triple to A.J. Pettersen in the eighth but struck out Justin Gominsky to close out his eight shutout frames.
Dezse came on in the ninth and worked around a two-out double to earn his fifth save of the season. He also went 1-for-4 with two runs scored and two RBI.
NOTES
– After the rain delay, the Buckeyes and Gophers were up against it time-wise because of a high school prom scheduled for Saturday evening in the concourse at Target Field.
– There was a two hour and three minute rain delay before the start of Saturday’s game.
– The win gave the Buckeyes their first series win at Minnesota in program history.
– Buckeye pitchers posted a 1.37 team ERA in the series while limiting the Golden Gophers to a .191 batting average. Ohio State struck out 19 Minnesota hitters while walking just six over 26.1 innings.
– Six Ohio State hitters posted batting averages of .300 or better in the series.
– Greve also was the stopper for the Buckeyes in game three last weekend. After the Buckeyes had lost the first two games against Iowa, the freshman tossed five scoreless innings, striking out three to pick up the win. His last two outings combined: 13 scoreless innings, nine hits, two walks and eight strikeouts.
