A familiar failing produces a familiar result in game 39 of the season…Buckeyes suffer another run-rule loss in series opener with Rutgers.
Columbus, OH – With three weeks remaining in the schedule the reasonable goal would be to win as many as possible…some momentum for the off-season after what’s been an inexplicable season and a record of 10-28 with no hope in sight of moving up to a bottom seed for the Big Ten Tournament.
One would hope. Because there’s always hope.
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But the Rutgers Scarlet Knights came to Bill Davis on Friday afternoon for what was to be a 6 pm game and wasted little time in getting a head start on the weekend in a 1 pm start. The start time was moved up due to impending forecast of rain and storms.
Playing with more than hope, the 12th-place Knights were playing for that final tournament seed, and ignited early and often against three Ohio State pitchers to score 17 runs on 13 hits and 8 walks to blow out the Buckeyes, 17-4, in what would turn out to be their 7th run-rule loss of the season.
Inexplicable? The Webster’s definition means unaccounted for, or hard to explain.
But reminiscent of that Bill Murray movie about Groundhog Day where every day feels like a replay of the previous one, once again Ohio State and starting pitcher Drew Erdmann found themselves down 4-0 by the end of the second inning, parlaying three hits, three walks, and a hit batsman into a deficit that the Buckeyes would never approach. By the time they scored their fourth and final run of the game in the sixth inning on a solo home run by first baseman Ryan Miller, Rutgers was already ahead 12-4.
Rutgers would score three in the fourth, one in the fifth, and four more in the sixth…before adding the crowning touch with 5 in the eighth inning to wrap up the run-rule verdict.
Erdmann’s day would conclude after 4.2 innings. His line…8 runs (7 earned), 8 hits, 4 strikeouts, 4 walks, and a hit batter. He took the loss, his sixth of the season.
Ryan Butler relieved with one out in the fifth. His line…3 runs (all earned), 4 hits, 2 walks and 2 wild pitches in eight batters faced.
Noah LaFine entered with two outs in the fifth. His line…5 runs (all earned), 2 hits, 2 strikeouts and 2 walks in 2.1 innings pitched.
Inexplicable, or not so hard to explain?
Watch it, watch it go…Ryan Miller’s homer in the sixth was the Buckeyes’ big blow in a Friday 17-4 loss to Rutgers. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
In the meantime the Buckeyes would amass 11 hits of their own, with three players finishing the game with multi-hit days.
Tyler Pettorini would go 2 for 4 with a pair of RBIs.
Mason Eckelman would go 3 for 4 with a run scored.
And freshman Sal Mineo had a 2 for 3 day with a run scored.
But of their 11 hits, ten were singles…Ryan Miller’s home run being the only extra base hit of the game.
Rutgers starting pitcher Landon Mack (3 runs on 3 hits) pitched the first five innings to record the win; Nolan Peel pitched the final three (1 run on 4 hits).
The clear and present danger for the next three weeks and besting the 1972 record of 11 wins and 25 losses (6-10 in conference) will be the question of pitching, and lack of available arms, as it has been from the start.
Currently 10-29, Rutgers, Michigan, Northwestern and Illinois round out the conference schedule, all four currently sitting in tournament position, and the Buckeyes should be highly incentivized to play spoiler (Rutgers currently 12th, and Northwestern, currently 11th). Misery loves company, they say.
Such as it is.
When the standard has been so high for so long…there’s nothing more miserable than inexplicable.
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