What no one saw…as opposed to the original call, and replay review…shows a different outcome from Mitch Okuley being called out attempting to score on a wild pitch in the third. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
For five innings they had the pitching and enough hitting to win most games. But facts intervened over the final four innings to cost the Buckeyes the finale of the Michigan series, as well as the series, itself.
Ann Arbor, MI – The fact that they lost the series finale to Michigan, and the series itself, was self-evident. The Wolverines (20-21, 10-5 in Big Ten) simply outperformed Ohio State over the final four innings to win 7-5 at Ray Fisher Stadium Sunday.
It’s the number of ‘what ifs’, and a few that were in sharp contrast to the facts of the game, that will make the outcome something that those who witnessed it remember well into the summer and until the two teams meet again.
Proudly sponsoring the Buckeyes and OHSAA events on Press Pros Magazine.com.
It was a game there for the taking, Ohio State getting a key pinch-base hit from Hunter Rosson in the fifth inning to break a 1-1 tie, and give the Buckeyes the offensive lift they needed to support a superior starting performance by freshman pitcher Gavin DeVooght.
Editor and publisher Sonny Fulks writes OHSAA sport and Buckeyes baseball for Press Pros Magazine.
And DeVooght, making just his fourth start of the season, was fabulous, pitching five innings of 1-run, 4-hit baseball, striking out 6 and walking just 1. He threw 85 pitches so confidently, and convincingly, as to leave little doubt over the final twenty games of the season as to whether Bill Mosiello and the coaching staff have finally found their third weekend starter.
But despite leading 3-1 in the fifth, the Buckeyes could have done more, leaving too many men on base – two in each of the first three innings – for lack of that timely hit that Mosiello laments so often.
They scored first, in the first inning off Michigan starter, Mitch Voit, on a pair of walks and an infield hit, loading the bases for Mitchell Okuley. With Voit on the ropes Okuley narrowly missed hitting into a double play with one out, beating out the throw to first for a fielder’s choice, driving in Lipsey.
Michigan would tie the the score in the bottom of the second, on a questionable call at first on a bunt base hit by Michigan with a man on, when Matt Graveline’s throw was ruled by umpire James Muhleck to have pulled Ryan Miller off the bag. The operative word being…questionable.
Bill Mosiello gets the cold shoulder from umpire Greg Harmon after questioning a call at the plate in the third inning.
More question in the third, when Mitchell Okuley doubled with one out, advanced to third…and then was thrown out at the plate on a wild pitch that was retrieved in time to knock off Okuley trying to score…catcher to pitcher covering home. Only, Okuley jumped up and immediately gave the signal to review the call. And in fact, or at the least, opinion, home plate umpire Greg Harmon might have kicked it from here to Ypsilanti, while standing five feet away. The accompanying photo (top) shows that Okuley clearly had his hand on the edge of the plate by the time Mitch Voit tagged him. Only…the Big Ten’s review system upheld the call, denying the Buckeyes an important run at the time.
They overcame that to score two in the top of the sixth on a single by Joe Mershon, a double by Josh Stevenson, and a clutch pinch-hit single to right by Hunter Rosson, driving in both runs…3-1, OSU.
The Koverman Staley Dickerson agencies sponsor the Buckeyes on Press Pros Magazine.com.
But DeVooght, who had been so good for five innings, was taken down in the bottom of the sixth for reliever Colin Purcell, pitching in place of Blaine Wynk, who missed the weekend due to an arm condition.
“DeVooght was fantastic,” said Mosiello when questioned later. “But he’s a freshman making his fourth start, and we weren’t going to have him overdo and get hurt, just for the sake of one ballgame. You hope to get him stretched out to six or seven innings and a hundred pitches, but that will be next week or in the future. But that was an awesome outing from him, and you couldn’t have asked for more.”
And who can argue?
Michigan’s Colin Priest celebrates a three-run homer in the sixth that gave the Wolverines the lead for good.
Purcell struck out the leadoff hitter, only to give up a walk and a base hit…and a three-run home run to Michigan’s Cole Caruso after a questionable 2-2 pitch was called a ball by Harmon, who heard it from both benches all day. Caruso hit the next pitch out of the park. Obviously rattled, Purcell then gave up a following home run to catcher Will Rogers. Purcell never did record the final out, allowing all four runs, as Jacob Morin came on to do that duty, and the Buckeyes trailed 5-3.
The Buckeyes added a run in the top of the seventh on a Pettorini double, his third hit of the day, and an eventual sac fly by Joseph Mershon…5-4, Michigan.
But Michigan struck for two more off Morin in the bottom of the seventh, who was taken down for Justin Eckhardt who came on to record the final out…7-4, Michigan.
And they added another run in the top of the ninth on a Kaczmar double, a ground ball that moved him to third, and an RBI sac fly by Pettorini to deep center. But Mitchell Okuley flied out harmlessly to center to end the game, and the weekend.
These are the facts, of course, and it would be hard to argue that umpiring cost the Buckeyes the game and the series. But more opinion…it should be better in the Big Ten, and if it was football it would be!
The McKinley Funeral Home of Lucasville, Ohio, proudly supports Ohio State baseball on Press Pros.
“[Blaine] Wynk didn’t get a chance to pitch this weekend, and he’s in the game if he was available in the sixth instead of Purcell,” said Bill Mosiello. “It’s really not Purcell’s role, but we didn’t have any other arms. We were hoping that he (Purcell) could give us an inning, but he didn’t, and I thought the 2-2 pitch (to Caruso) was strike three. We’ll get to look at that, unfortunately, but it won’t matter now if it was [a strike].
“Morin, I think, is a little bit out of gas because he’s had to pitch so much, but when you don’t have your best reliever available to pitch, that was the ballgame.”
Hunter Rosson’s clutch pinch-hit single in the fifth gave OSU a 3-1 lead.
That, plus the fact that had they gotten another hit or two during those early innings, they could have put more pressure on the Michigan bullpen, which was exposed on Saturday when they used eight relievers to hold Ohio State to 16 runs.
“They got more timely hits than we did,” he added. “But we’re starting to develop some guys and that’s the goal – to continue to get better.
“Today was a crusher, I don’t care who the team is when you lose two out of three. Of course, against them it’s huge, but we just got outhit today with the big hits.”
The Buckeyes (19-17, 6-6 in Big Ten) lost it with 5 runs on 10 hits and had no errors. Colin Purcell (1-4) took the loss
Michigan won it 7 runs on 13 hits and no errors. Reliever Jacob Denner was credited for the win.
Now it gets interesting, with not only a winable series ahead next week with Michigan State, but a series that’s sweepable against the here-of-late struggling Spartans (17-20, and 5-7 in the Big Ten). Michigan State won two of three from Penn State this weekend after being swept last week by Purdue.
“This didn’t make or break our year, and we’re still in the middle of things,” added Mosiello. “But we would have been a lot more comfortable. There’s a lot of baseball yet to go. This hurts today, but we’ll take the day off tomorrow and get ready for Tuesday (Wright State). I like this club, I like the fight, and we’ve just got to finish games.”
Notwithstanding any opinions about Sunday – the ‘what ifs’ – it’s all fact.
Precision Strip, in Minster, proudly sponsors your favorite sports coverage on Press Pros Magazine.com.