Buckeyes Rally in Ninth to Top No. 24 Minnesota, 3-2, Thursday Night – Ohio State Buckeyes

Thursday, May 19

Minneapolis, Minn.

Ohio State

37-16-1, 14-8

Minnesota

33-17, 15-6

Ohio State

Minnesota

Buckeyes Rally in Ninth to Top No. 24 Minnesota, 3-2, Thursday Night – Ohio State Buckeyes

5/20/2016 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

May 20, 2016

Head Coach Greg Beals (@bealsy9) shares his thoughts on the big win at No. 24 Minnesota Thursday night.#GoBucks https://t.co/IgGIRZhkdR

— The OSU Baseball (@OhioState_BASE) May 20, 2016

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio State baseball team continues to roll in the month of May. The Buckeyes scored a run in the top of the ninth, while the OSU pitching staff was strong once again in a 3-2 victory at No. 24 Minnesota Thursday night at Siebert Field in Minneapolis, Minn. With the win over the first-place Golden Gophers (33-17, 15-6), the Buckeyes (37-16-1, 14-8 B1G) extend their win streak to seven-consecutive games, including five victories against Top 25 opponents, and move to 1.5 games back with two to go.

“The story for me was our pitching staff,” head coach Greg Beals said. “Another workman-type outing for Tanner Tullly tonight, maybe not his best stuff, but gave us six solid innings. Seth Kinker came in and did a great job to get us out of a situation with runners on first and second and nobody out. Michael Horejsei gave us two innings for the victory and we left him to pitch the ninth inning. It was a little untraditional but we were going matchups and he executed very well for us.

Tanner Tully tossed six innings on two runs and 10 hits with four strikeouts in a no decision before the combination of Seth Kinker and Michael Horejsei limited the Gopher bats to no runs or hits with a strikeout in the final three innings. Horejsei, from Brunswick, Ohio, earned his first win of the season and second in his career, tossing two innings on no hits with a strikeout. Kinker got the Buckeyes out of a seventh inning jam, getting a hitter to ground into a double play before a fly out retired the side.

At the plate, Troy Kuhn plated the go-ahead run with a two-out RBI single to the left side in the top of the ninth. Junior centerfielder Troy Montgomery was a perfect 3-for-4 on the night with a walk and stolen base, while senior shortstop Craig Nennig was 2-for-4 with a run scored, walk and two stolen bases. Junior co-captain Jalen Washington also was 2-for-4. The Buckeyes put pressure on the base paths all night long and collected three swipes to elevate the season total to 85 in 2016.

“We were able to find some holes in the ninth inning and sneak out with a run to take the lead and finish it with our pitching staff,” Beals said. “It’s a good win but we need to be ready to go tomorrow night.”

SCORING PLAYS
Ohio State scored the first run in the top of the second when Montgomery scored on a wild pitch with runners on the corners and no down vs. Minnesota starter Matt Fielder. Montgomery singled to the left side before Washington knocked a single to right on a hit and run play. The Gophers answered with a run in the bottom of the second when a ground ball pushed Austin Athmann across the plate. Minnesota singled and doubled to start the rally.

Both pitchers managed to work out of jams in the third and fourth innings to keep it locked at 1-all. In the fifth, the Gophers took a 2-1 lead on a two-out RBI single by Micah Coffey.

But Ohio State rallied with one run in the top of the seventh to tie the game at 2-all. Tre’ Gantt knocked a one-out single to right center and advanced to second on a great dirt ball read by the sophomore right fielder. Nick Sergakis hit a single to center field to put runners on the corners. A passed ball on a pitch-out attempt by Fielder allowed Gantt to score the tying run. With it locked again this time at 2-all, the Scarlet and Gray had two runners on in both the seventh and eighth, but failed to push the go-ahead run.

In the ninth, Nennig started the rally with his second base hit of the game before a hit and run play put runners on the corners after a single to left by Ronnie Dawson. Kuhn sent a high chopper to the hole between shortstop and third base to score Nennig.

UP NEXT
Ohio State and Minnesota meet in game two at 7:30 p.m. ET Friday at Siebert Field live on BTN. Left-hander John Havird (6-2, 3.14 ERA) squares off vs. left-hander Dalton Sawyer (6-5, 3.41 ERA).

WORTHY NOTES

Ohio State improves to 90-89-1 all-time vs. the Gophers, while head coach Greg Beals improves to 8-5 all-time vs. Minnesota.
The Buckeyes have tied their season-high win total with seven in a row.
Ohio State improves to 14-8 in Big Ten play and has won nine of its last 10 league contests.
Multi-hit games: Montgomery (12), Nennig (12) and Washington (14).
Reached base streaks: Bosiokovic (11), Sergakis (7), Washington (6) and Montgomery (4).
Hit streaks: Sergakis (6) and Dawson (4).
Montgomery moved to sole possession on the OSU career steals list with his 58th swipe, passing former Buckeye Drew Anderson (2002-04). He is two stolen bases shy of tying former Buckeye captain and current volunteer video coordinator Matt Angle for third all-time. Montgomery also walked for the 44th time this year, which ties him for seventh on the OSU single-season walks list.
Tully posted his fifth straight quality start of the year and ninth overall.