Why is this man smiling? Justin Haire claimed his first win as coach of the Buckeyes Friday with an 8-3 decision over NC State. (Press Pros File Photos)
They got dependable pitching and timely hitting…everything you need to win…and delivered Justin Haire with his first win as a Buckeye, 8-3, over #12 NC State.
Jacksonville, FL – There are some things that don’t need to be said. They just speak for themselves.
And following an 0-3 start last weekend in Phoenix, no one had to mention that the Ohio State Buckeyes needed a win Friday in their opening game of the Jax Classic to stop the wondering and to bolster confidence.
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They got it Friday with an 8-3 win over #12-ranked North Carolina State, playing in perfect Florida spring training conditions. Emergency starter Drew Erdmann gave them a competitive 2.2 innings in place of Blaine Wynk, who was fighting a flu bug, and relievers Hunter Shaw, Nik Copenhaver and Luke Carrell followed with a near-perfect 6.1 innings to make it stand.
Offensively, the Buckeyes got their 8 runs on 10 hits, including a pair of critical home runs by Lee Ellis and Trey Lipsey, respectively, in the fifth and ninth innings, to ensure Justin Haire’s first win as coach of the Buckeyes.
“All the pitchers did a really good job,” said Haire. “Erdmann gave us a spot start and what should have been three full innings, but he had a couple of walks and gave up a home run there in the third. But Hunter Shaw came in for the second week in a row and gave us a couple of clean innings, and Nik Copenhaver came back and gave us three good innings in the 6th, 7th, and the 8th. Then Luke Carrell came on and got the final three outs. They all competed and attacked the strike zone and I was really impressed. Any time you can put up 8 zeros you should have a chance to win, and those guys certainly gave the offense the chance to do that.”
Lee Ellis hammered his second home run in the fifth inning Friday to stake the Buckeyes to a 5-3 lead. It turned out to be the winning hit.
The Buckeyes got on the board early, as has been their custom, with three runs in the second, only to have NC State wipe out that lead with a three-run homer in the bottom of the third.
Two innings later second baseman Lee Ellis, the transfer from South Carolina, belted a home run to left with Lipsey aboard to retake the lead, 5-3.
They added two more in the 6th on a two-run single by Matt Graveline to extend the lead to 7-3.
And for further insurance, Trey Lipsey homered to right in the top of the ninth to conclude the scoring at 8-3.
Hunter Shaw was the recipient of the win (1-0) as the three relievers – Shaw, Copenhaver and Carrell – completely flipped the script for bullpen reliability from a week ago.
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“Just being able to slow the game down a bit from week one to week two, and a lot of guys had their first experience last weekend,” said Haire. “Hopefully we’ll see them continue to improve.”
But the offense again delivered, following their own script, scoring early and adding on throughout the game. As previously written, this team is capable of scoring enough to give the pitching time to catch up.
“We challenged those guys (hitters) for months, and they’ve faced some pretty talented arms here in the first four games,” added Haire. “They haven’t back away from any of those challenges and their consistency has allowed us some creativity with how we’ve been able to score runs. Will Carpenter had a two-strike safety squeeze today and Lee Ellis hit a home run at 107 (mph) off the bat, and Lipsey gave us the insurance home run in the ninth. Just a lot of quality at bats up and down the lineup.”
They play game two of the weekend series when they meet 2016 National Champion Coastal Carolina on Saturday at noon. The projected starter will be Chase Herrell, who threw six competitive innings last week against Arizona State. If he can do that again, and even improve on those six innings, can the offense again meet the challenge?
We’ll see.
Until then, Justin Haire gets to rest on win #1 overnight, motivated by knowing that you can’t win a lot of games…until you’ve won your first.
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