Buckeyes Get Two Wins Saturday in South Carolina

Saturday, March 11

Conway, S.C.

Ohio State

8-7

Houston Christian

9-12

Houston Christian

Ohio State

Buckeyes Get Two Wins Saturday in South Carolina

3/11/2023 4:05:06 PM | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

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CONWAY, S.C. – The Ohio State softball team (9-7) upped its winning streak to three games on Saturday by picking up two wins at the Beach Chicken Brawl at Costal Carolina. The Buckeyes come from behind to defeat Houston Christian, 5-4, and then capped off the day with a 5-0 shutout of Canisius.

The win over the Golden Griffins was the 500th in the career of head coach Kelly Kovach Schoenly. In her 11th year leading the Buckeyes, Kovach Schoenly is 500-345-2 in her 17th year overall as a head coach. Last season, she became the fastest coach in program history to reach 300 wins with the Buckeyes.

In the first game of the day, Ohio State fought back from a 4-1 sixth-inning deficit and got a go-ahead two-run single from Kami Kortokrax and pulled ahead for good. In the second game, junior pitcher Allison Smith struck out seven and Ohio State scored three times in the fifth inning to open up an otherwise close game.

The Buckeyes’ stay in Conway, S.C. comes to a close tomorrow as they’re slated to finish play at the Beach Chicken Brawl with a 2:30 p.m. game versus Coastal Carolina. The contest will be aired live on ESPN+.

Game One: Ohio State 5, Houston Christian 4 – Game Notes

Trailing 4-1 through five and a half innings, the Buckeyes pushed across four runs in four hits and was aided by two key passed balls to surge ahead in the home half of the sixth inning.
Freshman Hannah Church started the rally with a double and Jaycee Ruberti and Tegan Cortelletti followed with singles to cut HCU’s lead to 4-2.
Cortelletti would eventually score on a passed ball to make the score 4-3, which was then followed by Kortokrax’s two-RBI go-ahead single.
Smith then worked a perfect 1-2-3 inning in the top of the seventh to complete the comeback.
The Buckeyes got production from the bottom of the order, as the 6-7-8-9 hitters all had a hit, including Ruberti, who entered as a pinch hitter in the sixth inning.

Game Two: Ohio State 5, Canisius 0 – Game Notes

Freshman Hannah Church continued to swing a hot bat, as she drove in the first run of the game in the top of the second on a single to center that scored Kortokrax, who walked to lead off the inning.
A Jaycee Ruberti run-scoring single in the fourth increased Ohio State’s lead to 2-0, setting up a key fifth inning in which three runs crossed the plate on five hits.
The biggest of those hits was a based loaded single through the right side by Korokrax, which scored two runs. Melina Wilkison also had an RBI single that scored Kaitlyn Farley, who led off the frame with a double.
Smith worked 6.0 innings and improved her record to 5-3. She struck out seven, allowed two walks and surrendered five hits.
Redshirt freshman Kennedy Kay came on and worked out of a jam in the seventh, getting back to back strikeouts with two on to end the game.
Nine different players recorded a hit, including multi-hit games from Tegan Cortelletti (2-3, one run scored) and Church (2-3, one RBI).

This and That

Today’s win mark a busy 24 hours for the Buckeyes: because of schedule changes, they played four games in that span and won three.
Tegan Cortelletti has a team hit six hits this weekend and is batting .600 over the four games Ohio State has played.
Hannah Church isn’t far behind, hitting .500 with two doubles, two RBI and two runs scored.
Nine different players have two or more hits this weekend.
Buckeye pitchers are striking out better than one batter per inning with 36 Ks in 25.2 innings.
Smith is 2-0 on the weekend with a 0.55 ERA, allowing just one earned run in 12.2 innings.