Winning, and having fun doing it…OSU’s Tyler Pettorini slides across the plate with an insurance run in the 6th inning of the Las Vegas Classic on Friday. The Buckeyes beat Cal Berkeley, 9-4. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Sonny Fulks)
Starter Landon Beidelschies carried a no-hitter in the fifth inning, they got enough offense, and lock-tight defense raised the Buckeyes past .500 with a Friday night win over Cal Berkeley.
Las Vegas, NV – It’s a little early in the season to be making too much over a win putting you over the all-important .500 mark.
But if you consider that .500 includes quality wins over teams like Southern Cal, Arizona State, and now Cal Berkely, it does provide an important frame of reference.
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In their first of three weekend games at beautiful Las Vegas Ballpark Friday night starter Landon Beidelschies carried a no-hitter into the fifth inning against a hard-hitting California Bear offense, the Buckeyes pounded out eight timely hits, and they committed no errors in a 9-4 win that looked like something they can almost do now on command.
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I said…almost!
“We’re a work in progress,” said Bill Mosiello in his post-game remarks. And there were enough loose ends to Friday’s win to lend credence to Mosiello’s caution. They’re pretty good, they’re getting better, but a little salt and pepper would add a lot – seasoning, if you will!
But again they played clean baseball…in this case, error-free baseball.
They didn’t have a lot of hits, but they had big hits at big moments…Trey Lipsey’s bases-clearing triple in the five-run third being the centerpiece of the offense.
The top six in the batting order accounted for seven of the eight hits.
Soph Landon Beidelschies chalked up another gem – six innings, 2 runs, 4 hits, 8 strikeouts, and a pair of walks.
Beidelschies made sure the pitching line was impressive – six innings, 2 runs on 4 hits, 8 strikeouts and a pair of walks. Zach Brown pitched two innings of credible relief, allowing a pair of runs on three hits. Blaine Wynk looked like Mariano Rivera with a four-batter ninth, striking out two of the three outs he recorded.
In total…10 strikeouts registered between Beidelshies, Brown, and Wynk, and just 3 walks surrendered. That’s progress.
There was defense, a pair of timely double plays, the pitcher’s best friend.
And centerfielder Josh Stevenson made a pair of shoe-top catches on line drives in center field that were so impressive the four-man umpire crew never even bothered to make an out call. They had to go under the stands for five minutes to watch it on replay.
The same umpiring crew got talked into warning Beidelschies about quick-pitching by the Cal bench, something they could have noticed themselves long before the third time through the batting order.
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And Mosiello’s manifesto about swinging at bad pitches put them in an offensive advantage in the bottom of the first inning. Cal starter Tre Newmann didn’t throw strikes and Buckeyes simply stood and watched. Two walks, a hit batsman, sandwiched by a single by Henry Kaczmar and a double by Matt Graveline produced three runs.
The diamond gem that no one saw, especially the umpire (foreground). Josh Stevenson makes this shoestring catch of a line drive that saved a run in the fifth.
Two innings later, the Buckeyes scored five in the bottom of the third with three more Newmann walks, pushing his pitch count past 65, and Lipsey’s triple pushed them all across the plate to take an 8-0 lead.
“I was huntin’ the fastball,” Lipsey assured, with his ever-present smile. “He threw it middle-in and I was able to hammer it. Right now we’re doing a good job of being selective at the plate, not swinging at off-speed early, and getting the fastball we want to hit.”
They added in the sixth when Tyler Pettorini singled and scored on an RBI double by Mitchell Okuley…9-0, Buckeyes.
On a cold, windy night in the Nevada desert, Beidelschies visibly tired by the fifth inning. His velocity, which had topped out at 95 repeatedly, dropped a tick, and Cal’s Caleb Lomavita picked on a fastball and drove it out to left to break up the shutout. The Bears followed with a double and an RBI single that cut the deficit to 9-2.
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“We knew they were a good offensive club coming in,” said Beidelschies. “I knew I’d have to get the fastball on both sides of home plate and command the off-speed. I was able to fill it up (the strike zone), let the defense play, and get a couple of strikeouts along the way.
“Getting the early runs was huge because it takes away some of the stress. I got a little tired at the end, and the velo dipped a bit. There were a couple of rough innings, and I did run out of gas a little bit.”
Matt Graveline swipes third to help set up the Buckeyes’ three run first in Friday’s 9-4 win over Cal.
But regardless of what the gauge said, he struck out two of the three outs in the sixth by throwing the fastball by them. The command dipped more than the velocity.
Zach Brown pitched an impressive seventh, then faltered in the eighth, giving up a home run to Cal leadoff hitter Max Handron, then a walk, a wild pitch, and an RBI single before retiring the third out.
Blaine Wynk, who seems to have taken to late-inning dependability like ducks do to water, put the choke hold on the final three outs in efficient fashion…he threw just 15 pitches, 10 for strikes.
The Buckeyes improved to 5-4 with 9 runs, 8 hit, and no errors. They left seven on base.
Cal dropped to 7-2 with 4 runs on 8 hits and committed a pair of errors. They stranded six.
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“Big win for us,” added Mosiello. “Important start by Beidelschies. For some reason he ran out of gas a little bit, but he was still outstanding for us. Those first four innings were awesome.
“We did a better job of being selective at the plate. The first five or six games were so uncharacteristic of what I’m hoping we can become, and we’re a work in progress. Every day we’re going to continue to get better, learn from things, and they’re starting to figure things out. There’s a difference in being selective aggressive and being passive aggressive. We want to hit every pitch…unless it’s not a quality pitch to hit. That’s the best way I can explain it.”
Ooh, I missed that one…Plate umpire Joe Burleson shares some confessional time with OSU pitching coach Sean Allen.
Going back to the top, it was the first game of another important weekend against premium competition. They play Pitt on Saturday in an early afternoon start, and the Panthers ran their record to 7-1 earlier Friday with a 19-9 win over Oklahoma, crushing Oklahoma pitching to the tune of 19 runs on 16 hits in a game shortened to seven innings.
And you can’t emphasize it enough…this is ‘quality’ competition. And all these wins are building blocks on the field, as well as for the NCAA tournament committee responsible for at-large teams come June.
“You can’t win ’em all if you don’t win the first one,” Mosiello quipped about Saturday and Sunday as he left for another interview.
That’s not original, of course, and often not feasible. But it’s the message he’s preaching every day. You can be a work in progress and still win.
“And when you’re good you don’t have to play perfect to win,” he said last week.
And that’s what they’re figuring out.
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