The Buckeyes mustered just 6 hits in Saturday’s loss to Cal Poly. Henry Kaczmar (above) had two of them. (Press Pros File Photos)
They gave up 14 runs in one inning Saturday…the long and the short of the Buckeyes’ 19-2 loss in game two of the Cal Poly series. There’s no explaining, and none necessary.
When you lose a baseball game 19-2, and give up 14 runs in one inning, there’s usually no one thing that you can put your finger on, or even blame.
And that’s exactly what happened to the Ohio State Buckeyes in game two of their series with Cal Poly on Saturday. No particular one thing, just a bad combination of offense and pitching you seek to not repeat.
They took a 1-0 lead early, in the first, only to see Cal Poly come back to tie in the second, and add 3 more in the third off starting pitcher Colin Purcell.
The Buckeyes added a run in the fifth off a triple by Joe Mershon and an RBI double from Zach Fjelstad. They trailed 4-2 entering the sixth.
But the bats dried up in the final four innings, and the roof collapsed on Purcell and the collective bullpen in the bottom of the 6, as Cal Poly would score 14 times on 9 hits, a couple of walks, a wild pitch, a hit batsman…the perfect storm of a bad baseball combination.
After reliever Hunter Shaw took over for Purcell in the fifth, a succession out of the bullpen would suffer the consequences of that one bad inning – Shaw, Logan Jones, Tim Baird, Noah Williamson, Andrew Edrington, and Jacob Morin. Cal Poly would go on to add one more in the 7th, as the Buckeyes saw their record drop to 6-6 on the season.
Cal Poly won it with 19 runs on 21 hits and left 11 on base.
Ohio State lost it with 2 runs on just 6 hits and left 4 on base.
For the second day in a row…a lack of offense loomed as a determining factor. Shortstop Henry Kaczmar had the only multi-hit day for the Buckeyes (2 for 3), as the bats fell silent against Cal Poly starter Steve Brooks (2 runs on 5 hits), and they mustered just 1 hit over the final three innings against the bullpen.
You flush it, and come back on Sunday with starter Gavin Bruni, seeking his second win of the season, in game three of the four-game series starting a 4 pm (ET).
Simple as that!
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