Buckeyes Win 7-6 in NCAA Regional Opener on Washington’s Walk-Off – Ohio State Buckeyes

Friday, June 3

Louisville, Ky.

Ohio State

44-18-1

Wright State

44-16

Wright State

Ohio State

Buckeyes Win 7-6 in NCAA Regional Opener on Washington’s Walk-Off – Ohio State Buckeyes

6/3/2016 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

June 3, 2016

Box Score

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Raise the axe. The Ohio State baseball team did it again. Down by one run in their final at-bat, the No. 2 seed Buckeyes rallied in the bottom of the ninth and won, 7-6, over No. 3 seed Wright State Friday afternoon on a walk-off single by junior co-captain Jalen Washington in the opening Louisville Regional game in the 2016 NCAA Tournament. With the win, the Buckeyes (44-18-1) will play No. 1 seed Louisville at 4 p.m. ET Saturday live on ESPN3. The Scarlet and Gray have won five-consecutive postseason games and first NCAA victory since 2009.

“Compete, compete, compete,” head coach Greg Beals said. “Next man up. Grind the axe. Just keep finding ways to win baseball games. Give our guys a lot of credit. We were a hit away in the eighth inning, and in the ninth inning we were able to punch it across. High quality at-bats, high quality competition. Tons of respect for Wright State and their ball club and the fight they put up. Strong team and a heck of a fight they put. A lot of respect for coach Lovelady and the Raiders.”

The Buckeyes’ axe located somewhere nearby senior Jake Brobst in the dugout has been the team’s symbol of resiliency in the last month, and today, the 18th victory stripe was added to the handle. Down 7-6, senior co-captain Nick Sergakis drew a lead-off walk and moved to scoring position after a sac bunt by senior Craig Nennig. Then on a 2-2 pitch, junior Ronnie Dawson singled through the right side as Sergakis was waved home by Beals around third base. A strong throw came in from right field, but Sergakis slid in head first and beat the tag to tie the game at 6-6. With the bases loaded, Washington blasted a one-hop single off the wall in deep center vs. freshman right-hander Caleb Sampen for the game-winning hit.

Junior Troy Montgomery went 4-for-4 with a double, run scored, stolen base and two RBI, while Dawson went 2-for-5 with a double, two runs scored and three RBI. On the mound, redshirt sophomore Kyle Michalik was credited with the win to improve to 4-1, while Sampen received the loss to drop to 8-4.

HOW WE GOT THERE
Ohio State hung a five spot on five hits in the bottom of the third as seven straight Buckeyes reached base safely with two outs vs. WSU starter Jesse Scholtens. It started when Sergakis hit a single up the middle. It didn’t seem big at the time, but that changed quickly. Nennig laid down an infield bunt single to put two aboard for the Buckeyes’ top slugger in Dawson. On a 0-1 pitch, Dawson cracked down the left field line to open things up, 2-0. Troy Kuhn was hit by a pitch to set up Montgomery, who sent a double down the line in left to score to more runs for the 4-0 lead. Jacob Bosiokovic drove in the fifth run of the afternoon with a RBI single up the middle.

But the Buckeyes’ five-run lead disappeared in a hurry when the Raiders scored two runs in the fourth and four in the fifth vs. Ohio State starter Tanner Tully take the lead, 6-5. With two on in the fourth, a fielding error allowed the first run to score before a fielder’s choice pushed home the second run for Wright State. In the fifth, the bases were loaded right away when Tully just missed on some pitches and walked the lead-off batter before back-to-back bloop singles. On a 1-2 pitch, a hit by pitch force d the third run. Ryan Fucci then pulled a three-run double down the left field line to empty the bases and give Wright State the one-run lead. Right-hander Seth Kinker relieved Tully with one down. He struck out the first batter he faced for the second out. The Raiders tried to steal home, but Fucci was thrown out at the plate when Kinker fired in to Washington for the tag-out to end it.

The Buckeyes had two runners on in the bottom of the fifth, but Scholtens induced a fly out to leave both runners stranded. Kinker left a runner on second base in the seventh when Kuhn gloved and flipped over to Ryan Leffel for the final out of the top half. The Scarlet and Gray had two runners in scoring position in the bottom of the eighth but Sampen got a big foul-out to leave them on base.

ON THE MOUND
Tully allowed six runs, four earned with two walks and two strikeouts in 4.0 innings of work in a no decision. Kinker tossed three scoreless frames and limited the Raider bats to one hit with three strikeouts and no walks. Left-hander Michael Horejsei sent down the only batter he faced to begin the eighth with a ground out. Michalik, from Brunswick, Ohio, came in with one down and tossed 1.2 shutout innings allowing no hits to shut the door on the Raiders.

WORTHY NOTES

Ohio State improves to 23-17-1 all-time vs. Wright State. The game today marked the first meeting between the two schools since the 2004 campaign.
The Scarlet and Gray are 43-39 all-time in the NCAA Tournament. Ohio State made its first NCAA appearance in six years at the tournament.
Head coach Greg Beals is 2-2 in the NCAA Tournament.
The Buckeyes lead the Big Ten with 130 doubles this season (fifth-most in OSU single-season).
Ohio State has 99 stolen bases this year (program-record).
With his 24th double of the season, Dawson is one double shy of tying the OSU single-season record held by Dan Seimetz with 25 in 1997.
Montgomery swiped his 60th bag of his career to tie former Buckeye and current volunteer video coordinator Matt Angle for third all-time in the OSU record book.
Multi-hit games: Dawson (24) and Montgomery (18).
Multi-RBI games: Dawson (15) and Montgomery (9).
Hit streaks: Dawson (13, career-high), Bosiokovic (7), Montgomery (5) and Nennig (3),
Reached base streaks: Dawson (19), Kun (10), Sergakis (8), Bosiokovic (7) and Montgomery (5).
Montgomery passed his hits total from last year and now has 67 hits in 2016 with his second four-hit performance of the season.
Kinker has appeared in 37 games in 2016, which is second-most in single-season school history.