Josh Stevenson’s third inning home run gave the Buckeyes the early lead. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
They’re now 2-6 since the home opener at Bill Davis, and Saturday proved to be the perfect storm of what’s ailing the baseball Buckeyes.
Lincoln, NE – Reality struck a real and revealing blow in the fifth inning of Saturday’s 7-3 loss to Nebraska in the middle game of this series at Haymarket Park.
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Leading 2-0…and cruising on a no-hit effort by starting pitcher Gavin Bruni…Bruni and the Buckeyes (12-14, 2-3 in Big Ten) suddenly saw the wheels come off in a familiar, yet inexplicable fashion.
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Riding single runs in the third and fourth innings, the Buckeyes jumped out 1-0 on Josh Stevenson’s third home run of the season in third…and in the fourth they parlayed singles by Kaczmar, Graveline, and Mitch Okuley into a second run, and could have done more. Joe Mershon ended the rally with a 6-4-3 double play on a ball he hit right on the screws.
Bruni, through the first four innings, was as good as he’s ever been, mixing a 95-mile-per-hour fastball with an assortment of breaking pitches, holding the Cornhuskers hitless through their first two trips through the batting order. He struck out three, walked two, but was most impressive for his ability to pitch to contact with confidence and success.
But in the fifth, he gave up the first hit, a leadoff single, and then with one out Nebraska’s Dylan Carey tomahawked a mistake pitch up in the zone out to left field to tie the score at 2-2. Second baseman Rhett Stokes followed with another hard-hit ball to left for a single…and Gavin Bruni’s day was done.
Gavin Bruni was solid through the first four innings, suffered the loss during the 6-run fifth.
Nebraska’s fifth inning was far from done.
On to pitch came Jacob Morin, who of late has been so dependable, and he immediately gave up back-to-back doubles, recorded a strikeout for the second out of the inning, then another double and a following single to push across the last of the six runs in the inning. No-hit entering, Nebraska exited with 7 hits in the inning and a 6-2 lead.
“I really can’t explain it,” Bill Mosiello tried afterwards to wrestle with the question of what happened, and so quickly, to Gavin Bruni.
“First, we had first and third with one out in the third and we can’t get a timely hit to push across another run or two. Instead we hit a ball hard to second base and into a double play.
“Bruni gave us a good start, but I don’t know why he fights to get through the fourth and fifth innings. But then again, we didn’t give him much of a chance after he gave up those three hits, and I’ve seen this movie before. And then we throw a guy out on a missed hit and run and have the ball kicked away, and that really changed the inning, too.”
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Morin was done after the fifth, replaced by Colin Purcell, who came on in the sixth and pitched the best he’s pitched in three weeks, scattering four hits while allowing just one earned insurance run in the bottom of the eighth inning.
But the damage was done. But how much damage? After such a positive start, this latest loss hurt. Nebraska starter Mason McConnaughey was nothing compared to the efficiency of Bret Sears the night before – hitable – and after the six-run fifth any issues of his own vulnerability were suddenly gone with the ever-increasing high winds.
40 mile-per-hour winds pushed this fly ball away from Isaac Cadena, narrowly landing foul and saving the Buckeyes a run.
That made the final three innings a high-wire act on any fly ball to the outfield – a misplayed ball by Mitchell Okuley in right, and a fly ball to left that Isaac Cadena chased for 50 feet and never could catch up to…the ball hitting just outside the foul pole and saving the Buckeyes another run.
Nebraska (22-6, 5-0) won it with 7 runs on 11 hits (after the hitless start) and had no errors. McConnaughey took the win, moving to 3-2.
Ohio State (12-14, 2-3) lost it with 3 runs on 6 hits and had 2 errors Bruni took the loss, dropping to 2-1..
Another issue posed to Mosiello…is the culture of confidence so evident in Arizona and Las Vegas seeping away with the replay of the afore-mentioned movie. Friday’s loss was understandable in the face of such a dominant pitching performance. Saturday’s was not, highlighted by some of the same deficiencies responsible for at least half of their fourteen losses.
A Husker baseball fan had his hat screwed down tight in the high winds of Saturday – 40 miles per hour.
And, how to turn it around before it reaches the April epidemic of a year ago?
“You’re always sensitive to that,” Mosiello said Saturday, prior to leaving the dugout. “And you can’t buy confidence. You have to play good baseball.
“Sports are very simple. You have to play well to win. And confidence is about two things – preparation and production. We’ve done all the preparation, and there’s all these people out there who think they have the answer for it. But you have to believe, and then you have go produce. That’s the only way to gain and maintain confidence.
“As a coach I don’t get confident when we haven’t played well, even though I know we’ve done the preparation. When you don’t play well and you don’t produce you can’t help but feel like you’re falling short somewhere. They (Nebraska) are a good baseball team and they’re out-playing us. They’re doing to us what we need to be doing to them.”
Some good news for Sunday, the bullpen is well-rested, and with all three presumptive starters having pitching during the first two games, the finale will be a mix and match starting with Gavin DeVooght.
“Hopefully DeVooght can give us two or three, and then we have Brown, Wynk and Eckhardt. So we’re right where we need to be.”
Given the circumstances, he couldn’t be more confident.
A lost day in Lincoln.
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