Defensive gem…Buckeye right fielder Mitch Okuley snagged this would-be double by Purdue in the fourth inning. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Sonny Fulks and Julie McMaken Wright)
The Buckeyes fix some of what has ailed them…pitching, timely hitting, and perfect defense – to launch their Big Ten schedule with an 8-2 win over Purdue.
Columbus, OH – Now, Bill Mosiello will freely tell you that he doesn’t believe in last year as a motivator…doesn’t believe in momentum…and that he’s not necessarily superstitious. He just likes it when a good plan comes together, regardless of the past.
That said, he was all smiles Friday night following the Buckeyes 8-2 win over visiting Purdue, the opening game of two months of conference baseball that, regardless of what he says, cannot be a pleasant memory of 2023. The Buckeyes started 0-3 a year ago this weekend, being swept in Indiana, was 3-13 for the month of April, and concluded the rest of the Big Ten schedule with a record that landed them in 11th place in the final league standings.
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“That was then,” he started out his post-game comments on Friday. “And no, I’m not counting it as a motivator because half of this year’s roster wasn’t on that team, wasn’t there, and has no experience with last year. And frankly, I’d just as soon you not remind them that it happened.”
But, by the same token he has spilled the beans more than once during the past month and the toughest con-conference schedule this program has undertaken for at least two decades. The idea?
“Get ready for Big Ten play,” he said as recently as following a winning weekend in West Virginia, and again last week after losing the series against Georgetown. “Everything has been about preparing us for what we do in the Big Ten, and nothing we’re going to see will be more than we’ve already seen.”
Mitch Okuley watches as Purdue’s Connor Caskenette’s first inning home run left the park on Friday.
So whatever you believe about Friday’s 8-2 win, they used something to score 8 runs on 15 hits and play error-free baseball – just the way ‘Mo’ likes it. Great pitching from starter Landon Beidelschies, hitting that saw DH Nick Giamarusti (4 hits) and centerfielder Josh Stevenson (3 hits) garner exactly half of those fifteen hits, and error-free baseball.
And it could have been worse if you’re a Boilermaker fan…they left 11 men on base!
But not without some drama…as Beidelschies hit the leadoff hitter in the game and two batters later saw Purdue’s Connor Caskenette hit an opposite-field home run to stake them to a 2-0 lead.
Good Lord! Indiana, revisited? Perish that thought.
Beidelschies (3-4) shook it off like Rain-X on your windshield and dominated the Boilers over the next seven innings, allowing just four hits, striking out 7, and finished with a tidy sum of 100 pitches.
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“I was trying to get the ball outside,” said Beidelschies afterward, speaking of the first inning home run. “Trying to attack there and got too much plate. But mistakes happen when you leave it down the middle, and you learn from it.”
In the meantime his teammates cut the deficit in the bottom of the first with a run on three singles, Tyler Pettorini with the RBI.
The big ‘Cheese’…Landon Beidleschies gave up just 4 hits and struck out 7 in his final four innings of work. He earned his third win of the year.
They tied the game on the second on doubles by Giamarusti and Stevenson.
They took the lead in the fourth on singles by Giamarusti, Hank Thomas, Stevenson, a SAC fly by Trey Lipsey and a fourth single by Matt Graveline…and suddenly Purdue starter Jordan Morales must have thought he was pitching to a pinball machine as the Buckeyes were a picture of perpetual motion running the bases.
In the fifth they administered the coup de gras, as Mitch Okuley fisted a single to right…and Giamarusti delivered a home run to right, his third hit, his second homer of the year, and now they led, 7-2.
Beidelschies kept getting stronger, striking out four of the last six outs he recorded before leaving at the end of the seventh in favor of Blaine Wynk.
Wynk pitched a scoreless eighth, the Buckeyes adding an insurance run on Giamarusti’s fourth hit of the game and a two-base hit by Stevenson, his third hit of the game, to score him.
Jacob Morin came out to pitch a scoreless ninth, and that was about as clean as even Bill Mosiello can ask.
Ohio State won it with 8 runs on 15 hits and no errors, to improve to 11-11 (1-0 in the Ten)
Purdue lost it with 2 runs on 6 hits, (16-11, and 1-3 in the Ten).
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“One day at a time,” said ‘Mo’ later, fending off questions about deja vu, and 2023. “But that was a really good baseball game. No better time than the present because we needed to get off to a good start. Tomorrow’s a big one, but I’m going to enjoy this one tonight.
“Beidelschies’ numbers are really good, but if you look at the first inning he always seems to have a tough time. That’s when he gives up his most runs, but then he settles in and competes his tail off. But we got some timely hits, and we could have gotten more. That’s why we only had 8 runs. Last weekend, as horrible as it was, happened because we just didn’t get any hits. It we get three or four hits that series changes. So I wasn’t worried, I knew we were going to hit.”
And no bad memories of Indiana?
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“Well, the two runs in the first tonight did come to mind because we got 6 in the first inning last year with Coupet on the mind, and he hadn’t given up 6 runs all year. But they came back and beat us, but no one, not one time, has talked about what happened last year. We have 27 new players and please don’t let them know that. We could still start out 3-13, but at least we one the first one.”
It was a big night for players who badly needed a breath of air. Josh Stevenson, entering the game beneath the Mendoza line, had a pair of doubles, along with a single, to drive in a pair of runs and raise his average 40 points, to .237.
“It felt good because we haven’t been swinging the bat like we wanted,” he said, later. “But there’s no better time to start than Big Ten play. It’s not easy, and if it was everyone would be doing it. And I think that’s what keeps me coming back. I’m still trying to figure it out – still trying to swing my way back into hitting baseballs.”
Nick Giamarusti would finish the game 4 for 5, and raise his mark to a fairly gaudy .326, impressive given he’s only had 43 at bats. But, the transfer from John Logan Junior College is making a big bid for more playing time.
“The coaches have changed my swing here, and it’s helped,” grinned Giamarusti. “And they always harp on the approach to hitting, and if you have no plan when you go to the plate it really doesn’t matter. You hear it a lot about how baseball is 10% physical and 90% mental, and that’s what we’re trying to do. Take the work you do in the cage and bring it out to the game. That’s the plan and if you can’t do that then it doesn’t matter.”
Old-timer’s day…Yours truly threw out Friday’s first pitch without throwing my back out, or getting nailed with a line drive. I count it a win.
But say what you want about momentum, motivation, and bad ju-ju from the past, if they can parlay whatever it was they had going for them Friday into Saturday, Mosiello is not going to turn it down, or pretend it didn’t happen for a reason. He, himself, has said constantly that you can’t play without confidence, and you can’t have confidence unless you can sustain the good at bats, the pitching, and the defense.
And you can count on this. He wouldn’t have enjoyed Friday’s win nearly so much if he knew that Saturday might be a return to Bloomington, a year ago. That’s not what he’s thinking.
No siree, Bob!
Game notes….
Among those in attendance to watch Friday’s game were Kirk and Jessica Persinger, from Ever-Green Lawn Care, in Troy, and their three children. Ever-Green is a long-time sponsor Buckeye baseball on Press Pros.
And in addition to the multi-hit games for Stevenson and Giamarusti, Tyler Pettorini went 2 for 5 and drove in the Buckeyes’ first run of the game.
All nine in the original batting order had at least one hit for the game…the first time that’s happened for the year.
Strike throwers….the Buckeyes did a good job of throwing bullseyes from the mound. Of his 100 pitches, Beidelschies had 68 strikes, Bline Wynk had 12 for his 16 pitches in the eighth, and Jacob Morin threw 9 of 12 for strikes.
Lefthander Gavin Bruni will be moved up a spot in the rotation in order to make Saturday’s start. Bruni is trying to figure some things out, himself, being unable to pitch beyond 1 out in the fifth inning in each of his last two starts.
Saturday’s game has been moved up to a 12 pm start due to the inclement forecast and off-and-on rain.
You make the call…OSU’s Landon Beideschies and Purdue’s Couper Cornblum stretch for the bag. Cornblum was called safe by first base umpire Matt Neader.