The Buckeyes revert to mistakes and too many free bases, lose momentum of the Oregon wins and lose frigid Tuesday confidence opportunity with West Virginia.
Columbus, OH – Count it as opportunity lost – a chance to build on the encouraging doubleheader wins over Oregon on Saturday that snapped a seven-game losing streak and proved that the Buckeyes are capable on a given day of playing with anyone.
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But just 72 hours later they proved that on a given day they’re still that work in progress that Justin Haire has had to talk about all too often through 25 games…losing to the West Virginia Mountaineers Tuesday, 9-6, who no doubt still remembered the 26-11 forget-me-not Buckeyes left in Morgantown last March.
Free bases…walks…offensive lapses…defensive lapses – failure to cover second base on a West Virginia steal attempt, and a ball cut off in the infield on a short sac fly ball to right field that scored a run in the sixth (a runner that would have been out by twenty feet).
And failure to appreciate a gifted big inning opportunity in the fourth when West Virginia walked a pair, hit a pair, and Lee Ellis struck out with the bases loaded to end the inning.
It all helped…or hindered.
Was it the weather…42 air degrees with a chill factor in the mid 30s? It was…miserable, and a 3 hour, 40 minutes game.
Was it West Virginia, a Big XII team that entered the game with a 22-4 record, having scored 39 runs over the weekend in a series win against Brigham Young?
Or was it just another example of the inconsistency…the ongoing effort of putting it all together that senior Tyler Pettorini talked about over the weekend.
“Some days we pitch and some days we hit,” he said. “We need to pitch and hit on the same day.”
They started off well, Lee Ellis crashing his sixth home run of the year in the bottom of the first.
West Virginia tied the game in the top of the second with a run off Buckeye starter Zac Sigman; but OSU quickly regained the lead in the bottom of the second when leftfielder Matt Graveline lined his sixth homer of the year out to left.
But Sigman ran into problems in the top of the third, surrendering a run to tie on two hits before being lifted for Charlie Giese.
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Giese then gave up four in the top of the fourth. WVU led, 6-2.
The Buckeyes scored two in the bottom of the fourth on the two walks, two hit batsman and a single – what could have been a much bigger inning – only to leave the bases loaded with Ellis’ strikeout…6-4.
WVU added a run in the top of the fifth off Nik Copenhaver, and two in the top of the sixth off Sahil Patel…9-4.
The Buckeyes again tallied in the bottom of the seventh…9-5.
Ryan Miller hit this ball 102 mph off the bat, robbed of a home run with an over-the-wall catch in right field.
The Buckeyes are making the most of these mid-week games for developmental opportunity. In total they used seven different pitchers Tuesday – Sigman, Giese, Copenhaver, Patel, Zev Salsberg, Spencer Hill, and Doug Bauer to give themselves a chance to claw their way back from 9-5 over their last two at bats. Bauer, making his tenth appearance of the year, was the most impressive (2.0, no runs, no hits, 4 strikeouts).
But it didn’t happen, despite OSU opening the bottom of the eight with singles by Mason Eckelman and Matt Graveline, a sac bunt moved them to second and third, respectively, but they could only score once on a ground ball out by Sal Mineo and a fly out to center by Maddix Simpson…9-6.
WVU reliever Reese Bassinger Lipsey, Ellis and Pettorini in the bottom of the ninth and the Buckeyes fell to 8-17 for the year, 9-6.
WVU won it with 9 runs on 10 hits and had 3 errors.
OSU lost it with 6 runs on 7 hits and had 1 error.
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Ohio State pitchers again crippled their own cause, surrendering 9 walks with those 10 hits, and a lot of them scored. 8 of WVU’s 9 runs were earned!
“I thought our energy level kinda’ ebbed and flowed throughout the game,” explained Justin Haire, afterwards. “And that was disappointing after the weekend because I thought in all three games we were in the fight with every pitch. Tonight it felt like we were in it at times, and at times we weren’t, and that’s stuff that’s within our control.
“We were at home, had another good crowd, and we wanted to put together a good product for those folks who came to see us play. Tonight we came up short.”
The afore-mentioned issues didn’t help, but the fact of going 0-8 with runners in scoring position is a killer in any baseball game.
“They got the hits at key moments, and we didn’t,” said Haire. “Unfortunately, we took some good swings and hit some balls hard. But we didn’t find the hole and they made some plays. Ryan Miller hits a ball 102 miles per hour to right, the ball’s not traveling tonight, their rightfielder made a great play to keep it from being a home run, and we get a runner doubled off first.
“If that ball travels a foot farther and it’s a home run it’s a 7-6 game and we’ve got some momentum. Again, those are the little things, the game within the game that helps you win. West Virginia is 23-4 for a reason. You need to have that ability to come through in those situations.”
They have a couple of days to reboot, then fly to the west coast for three games at USC this weekend. Matt Graveline explained his sudden turnaround over the weekend as playing the game with some fun again.
Let’s hope…they all have a lot of fun in LA.
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