It was that kind of day…Ohio State’s Jaylen Jones gets in the way of Illinois runner Camden Janik to deny the Illini a run on a wild pitch in the fifth inning. The Buckeyes would eventually lose to Illinois, 10-5. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Lack of dependable pitching raised its ugly head, and again cost the Buckeyes sustainable momentum in a loss to Illinois.
Champaign, IL – Simply put, you cannot win a baseball game when you pitch so poorly as to walk eight, hit three, and give up 11 hits to the conference front runner.
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Doubleday spoke these same words when he invented the game back in the 19th century, and Saturday, in front of a packed house at Illini Field the Buckeyes proved once again that good hitting always beats poor pitching. And the numbers bore him out.
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Ohio State (23-20, 8-9 in Big Ten) used six pitchers to no avail at all in a disheartening 10-5 loss to Illinois (27-16, 12-5 in Big Ten). They trailed from the first inning on, and except for the remarkable personal performance by Tyler Pettorini…had no highlights at all in the series-evening loss.
“Offensively we competed,” said Buckeyes boss Bill Mosiello. “But the starting pitching…2.2 innings. It’s the simplest formula you’ll ever know.
“And going back to yesterday, when Beidelschies only got through four innings it forced us to use up our guys. We have no depth in the bullpen so if our starter doesn’t have a miraculous five innings pitched it makes it really hard.”
Seeking to break a string of recent inexplicable struggles, Gavin Bruni once again ran into trouble in the first inning, walking the the first two hitters he faced before somehow retiring the final out while allowing just one run.
Buckeyes’ Gavin Bruni shows his frustration after exiting Saturday’s game in the third inning.
But after recovering to pitch a harmless second, he could not sustain his command of the strike zone in the third.
He walked three, gave up a pair of run-scoring singles, and with two outs Sean Allen was forced to go to the bullpen and freshman reliever Chase Herrell. Bruni’s line: 2.2 innings, 4 runs on 3 hits, 4 strikeout and 5 walks.
Herrell would stick around for seven outs over 2.1 innings, but was hardly intimidating. Illinois, still smarting from the late-inning beating they took the night before, touched him for a run on 3 hits over that time, and coaxed a pair of walks.
Trailing 5-0 entering the fifth, Illinois was in cruise mode behind starting pitcher Cooper Omans. But third baseman Tyler Pettorini greeted him to start the fifth with a towering home run to right, his eighth of the season…5-1, Illini.
Omans was gone by the time Pettorini came to the plate again in the sixth, replaced by reliever Korey Bunselmeyer. And after a two-out single by Henry Kaczmar and a walk to Hunter Rosson, Pettorini touched Bunselmeyer for a three-run shot to dead center, his second homer of the game, and ninth of the season….5-4, Illini.
And forced to go again to the bullpen in relief of Herrell after his 2.1 innings, Ohio State simply had no more bullets.
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In succession….
Jaylen Jones…0.1 innings pitched, allowing one hit and a wild pitch off the screen so errant that it came right back to catcher Matt Graveline who shoveled the ball to Jones in time to tag out an Illinois runner at the plate attempting to score on the wild pitch.
Tyler Pettorini gets the glad hand from teammates after his second home run of the game in the sixth inning.
Jake Michalak…making a rare appearance (his seventh), pitched 0.2 innings, faced 2 batters, and was out before Illinois could discover that he was in.
Jacob Morin came on to pitch the seventh, and promptly served up two-run home run to Illini hitter Connor Milton to push their lead back to 7-4.
The Buckeyes would answer with a run in the top of the eighth – a double by Joe Mershon and an RBI single by Mitchell Okuley…7-5.
But Morin came back out for the eighth and got touched up by catcher Jacob Schroeder for a three-run blast to left to put the game out of reach…10-5
Hunter Shaw came out to relieve Morin at that point and pitched 0.2 innings, allowing a hit.
Illinois won it with 10 runs on 11 hits and had no errors.
Ohio state lost it with 5 runs on 7 hits and had one error.
But aside from losing ground, and the momentum from the night before, it was a sober reminder of what Bill Mosiello frequently says about the importance of ‘momentum’ – that it’s only as good as the effectiveness of your next starting pitcher.
“You can’t walk eight hitters, hit three more, and give up 11 hits to an offense like this and expect to win,” he reiterated, the frustration rising in his voice. “The game will never change.
“It’s hard to watch for me, the second year into this and we’re still seeing this kind of stuff, and it’s hard…it sucks. We’ve got a lot of work to do as a staff, developing the few guys we have in the program that have a chance…and we’re going to have to go out and make some changes.”
No caption necessary…..
And as hard as it is to lose in the afore-mentioned manner, it’s just as hard to negate the remarkable day of Tyler Pettorini, who went 2 for 4, with two home runs and 4 of their 5 runs batted in.
“Again, offensively we competed,” added Mosiello. “We hit some balls hard and Tyler was awesome…that was exciting to see. Awesome!”
But they fall back to a game under .500 on a day when Michigan State beats Michigan and eases a game ahead of Ohio State in the Big Ten standings…and percentage points behind Maryland who also jumped the Buckeyes to gain the eighth spot, temporarily.
Sunday’s finale becomes yet another focal point of the final 10 games on the schedule, as they badly need a series win in order to generate whatever momentum’s possible before last-place Northwestern comes to Bill Davis Stadium next weekend.
Not to be harsh, or negative, but they can start, as Mosiello painfully witnessed, by throwing strikes. You just can’t win when you throw 185 pitches for the game…and only half of them strikes!
That part of the game will never change.
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