The longest Buckeye home run in over a decade…Ryan Miller’s fourth inning blast left the bat at 110 mph and traveled 449 feet to clear the scoreboard in right center field. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
There were plenty of bright spots, but the final score told the tale…the Buckeyes squander a late lead and fall to Arizona State in the season opener.
Phoenix, AZ – If you look for the silver lining it was there.
Simply put, the Buckeyes pounded out 11 hits and scored 8 runs, including the longest home run in more than a decade off the bat of first baseman Ryan Miller.
More, they hammered four other shots that were caught, including the game’s final out that resulted in a double play.
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The silver lining…any time this club scores 8 runs it’s going to win a lot of those games. If, that is, they can hold the opposition to 7. And that was the tale of the tape Friday night in the season’s opener, a 9-8 loss to Arizona State that saw the Sun Devils overcome an 8-6 Ohio State lead in the final two innings.
It wasn’t how you want to remember the debut of Justin Haire as head coach, and technically, you could pin those final two innings on the bullpen.
Or, you could point to a pair of home runs by Arizona State in the first three innings off Buckeye starter Blaine Wynk, who was penalized for being one-dimensional and making a couple of mistakes in the strike zone.
Starter Blaine Wynk gave up just four hits in his three innings of work. But two of them were home runs that accounted for five runs.
“His first start and Blaine’s a competitor,” said Haire, afterwards. “His off-speed just wasn’t landing for him. He had no feel for the changeup and against their lefthanders you’re going to have to get something to get them off the fastball.
“But he battled. He didn’t beg off anything. He didn’t shut down. He wanted to keep going. So I was proud of the way he competed, and things will clean up for him over the course of time. I’ve got a lot of faith in him.”
The Buckeyes scored first, almost immediately in the top of the first after two were out…on a walk to Tyler Pettorini, an RBI double by shortstop Marc Stephens, and a second RBI double by Mason Eckelman. They led 2-0 and felt good about leading with Wynk on the mound.
But the Buckeyes’ junior fire-baller ran into trouble with a leadoff walk on four pitches, a fielder’s choice, a misplayed ground ball through the legs of Stephens at shortstop that scored the leadoff hitter…and then a booming home run off the bat of ASU’s Jacob Tobias that erased the lead and put the Sun Devils on top, 3-2.
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Ohio State tied it up with a single by Ryan Miller and an RBI double by left fielder Nick Giamarusti in the top of the second, which seemed to steady Wynk in the bottom of the inning. He retired the side without additional damage.
But in the bottom of the third Arizona State sent seven men to the plate, highlighted by a three-run blast by catcher Josiah Cromwick off an errant fastball that sent ASU out to a 6-3 lead, and Wynk’s pitch count to nearly 60. He would not come out for the fourth. ASU led, 6-3.
Shortstop Marc Stephen’s first inning double drove in the Buckeyes’ first run of 2025.
In the top of the fourth first baseman Ryan Miller came to the plate with one out and hammered a fastball off ASU starter Ben Jacobs over the 50-foot-high scoreboard in right center field. It was deduced to have traveled 449 feet, and was by far the longest home run in recent years by any Ohio State hitter, cutting the deficit to 6-4.
Reliever Hunter Shaw came out of the bullpen in the bottom of the fourth to pitch brilliantly over the next three innings, retiring nine ASU hitters in a row while striking out three.
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Better, the Buckeyes took advantage of the Sun Devils’ bullpen following Jacobs’ four innings of work.
In the top of the seventh Giamarusti walked, stole second, and scored on a Reggie Bussey flare to left field. Trey Lipsey followed with a single, Matt Graveline walked, both advanced on a double steal, and Bussey scored on a sac fly to left by Tyler Pettorini.
ASU went to its bullpen for a third time in as many innings, bringing in hard-throwing Kelly Lucas to face Marc Stephens. He retired Stephens on a line drive to center, but DH Mason Eckelman followed Stephens with a line drive that hugged the left field line for a double, scoring Lipsey and Graveline. By the time Ryan Miller was retired for the final out Ohio State had taken the lead, 8-6.
Shaw came out for the seventh, but didn’t retire a hitter, giving up a leadoff double and a pair of singles. He was taken down for another lefthander, transfer Luke Carrell, who labored through a fielder’s choice that scored a run, a ground out that scored a second run, tying the game at 8-8, and a double by Cromwick that sent ASU ahead, 9-8.
“I thought Hunter was super competitive,” added Haire. “He put up those three zeroes there in the middle of the game and allowed us stay in the game and scratch back.
“He battled, gave us all he had, and that’s all we ask every single day. So I was proud of him. Sometimes the results don’t match the competitive effort.”
Reliever Hunter Shaw pitched brilliantly before running into trouble in seventh.
Now with the lead in the top of the eighth, ASU reliever Bradyn Barnes retired the Buckeyes in order.
OSU righthander Drew Erdmann retired Arizona State in order in the bottom of the eighth, setting up an if-the-worst-can-happen-it-will-scenario in the top of the ninth.
OSU needed a run to tie, and closer Will Koger walked Matt Graveline to start the inning. Pettorini struck out. Marc Stephens then looped a single over shortstop to move Graveline to second base. With one out Mason Eckelman came to the plate and hit a searing line drive at the head of ASU second baseman Kyle Walker. Walker literally caught the ball in self defense, but Graveline had broke for third base and Walker shoveled the ball to the shortstop covering second to double off Graveline for the game’s final out.
Or was it?
Justin Haire requested a video review, but the review monitor behind the third base dugout was inoperable, forcing plate umpire Jeff Henrichs to eventually walk through the 3,500 in attendance to review the play in the press box upstairs on a monitor that was working.
With Graveline still standing on second base, and after a delay of ten minutes, Henrichs finally came back down to the field and signaled Graveline out for the game’s final out, leaving Haire with his arms folded in disbelief.
“It just followed with the rest of the issues we had in preparing for the trip,” said Haire. “We had a charter flight cancel six days before we fly out, a million other challenges along the way, so when they told me that the power was out on the monitor I said ‘Of course it is. It couldn’t happen any other way.'”
The Buckeyes dropped the opener with 8 runs on 11 hits, and committed one error. Hunter Shaw was tagged as the losing pitcher.
Arizona State won it with 9 runs on 8 hits and had no errors…the two home runs in the first three innings the obvious difference in the score.
Arizona State second baseman Kyle Walker points to Matt Graveline being doubled off second baseball for the final out of the. After a twelve-minute delay, video review upheld the out call.
But some significant bright spots. The bullpen, while taking the loss, pitched well. To Haire’s words, it competed better than the outcome would indicate…5 innings of 3 run, 4-hit baseball with no walks and three strikeouts.
And the offense, including the hoped-for emergence of power-hitting Ryan Miller, whose home run in the fourth was jaw-dropping, regardless of who you were rooting for.
“He’s a special kid,” said Haire. “That guy’s done everything we asked him to do and I couldn’t be happier for him. Someone said the home run was 110 miles per hour off the bat and went 450 feet.
“But I was proud of our offense, all of our guys. Again, we didn’t get the final result we wanted, but we saw a lot of good things and hopefully we can come back tomorrow and compete to the best of our ability again.”
Some other numbers….
The Buckeyes had five players with multi-hit games…Trey Lipsey (2 for 5), Marc Stephens (2 for 5), Mason Eckelman (2 for 5), Ryan Miller (2 for 4), and Nick Giamarusti (2 for 3).
An omen on the mound…Buckeye pitchers struck out 6 while walking just 2.
Blaine Wynk threw 57 pitches over three innings, while Hunter Shaw threw 51 in his three-plus innings.
Sophomore Chase Herrell goes to the mound in Saturday’s 1 pm start. Herrell was 3-1 in 2024 with a earned run average of 4.51.
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