COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio State baseball team had its Frisco Classic record evened at 1-1 Saturday as the Cal Golden Bears used a couple big innings to defeat the Buckeyes, 16-1, in seven innings Saturday at Riders Field in Frisco, Texas. Ohio State’s record is now 4-6 for the year while Cal improved to 7-2.
California, coming off a 9-5 loss to Oklahoma on Friday, sent nine men to the plate in the first inning against Ohio State Jr. RHP Justin Eckhardt. The Golden Bears leveraged five singles, two stolen bases and a sac bunt to score five runs in the first inning. A 10-run fifth inning followed a short time later and Cal never looked back.
Some Notes on the Game
- After Cal’s big first, Ohio State got two men on in their half of the first – Marcus Ernst and Kade Kern each with one out singles – but a double play ball ended the inning.
- Will Pfennig made his first appearance of the year for Ohio State when he replaced Eckhardt to open the second inning. He proceeded to calm the Cal bats down, retiring nine consecutive between the second and fourth innings to keep the score manageable.
- Ohio State got on the scoreboard thanks to a solo home run to right field by Ernst, his team-leading third of the season, making the score 5-1 in favor of the Golden Bears.
- A single, two walks and a hit batter gave Cal its sixth run of the game in the fifth and prompted a pitching change: Jake Johnson for Pfennig.
- The first batter Johnson faced – Peyton Schulze – sent a one-ball-two-strike pitch out of the park for a grand slam, a 10-1 Cal lead and another pitching change: to LHP Jaylen Jones.
- Cal touched Jones for a couple of runs in the inning on three walks and a double to increase the lead to 12-1, at which point Jameson Campbell came in to pitch for the Buckeyes. Three more runs came home for the Golden Bears for a 10-run inning and a lead that would prove to be insurmountable against some fine Cal pitching.
- Three Cal pitchers limited the Buckeye batters to four hits while sriking out six and not allowing one batter to reach base via a walk.
- Justin Eckhardt was the pitcher of record for Ohio State and is now 0-2 on the year. Wyatt Loncar also pitched for Ohio State; a clean seventh inning.
- Ernst had two of Ohio State’s hits with Kern and Tyler Pettorini getting the other two singles.
Game/Season Notes
- A crowd of 7,526 was on hand for the game.
- The finale of the Frisco Classic for Ohio State will match the Buckeyes against 2022 College World Series participant Oklahoma (5-4) at 4 p.m. Sunday.
- Oklahoma lashed 18 hits Saturday against Mississippi State and won, 15-8.
- All games are being streamed on D1Baseball.com.
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