After the fact…Trey Lipsey prevents the run-rule with this three-run home run in the bottom of the eighth. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Trailing 5-4 in the fifth, the Buckeyes saw Illinois score 10 unanswered runs over the next three innings to take the series and add insult to injury.
Columbus, OH – The finish line, mercifully, is near…punctuated by another frustrating loss by the Buckeyes (their 37th) on Friday afternoon to Illinois, 18-9.
And if there was any doubt before the Illini hit town…during the Ohio State’s 4-25 conference record in the Big Ten…the all-important and inevitable fact is that whether because of injury, or experience, or whatever, before now and next February they’re going to have to find a pitching staff. Whether through recruiting, the portal, or hobos from the rail yard, it doesn’t matter. Just find some pitching.
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Some of it is inexperience. Some of it’s maturity. And yes, some of those who came to Lane and High last summer hoping to reignite their baseball dreams, have simply been in over their heads.
But Saturday’s loss, after trailing by just 5-4 in the fifth inning…and then 5 home runs and twelve runs off the Buckeye bullpen by an Illini avalanche…only magnified the reality that pitching is 80% of game, and if you don’t have it, it’s so very, very tough to win, regardless of who you play!
For the frustrating fact of Friday’s loss is that while hopelessly behind in the eighth inning, Trey Lipsey came up in the bottom of the inning with two men on and hammered his 7th home run of the season for the Buckeyes’ 6th, 7th, and 8th runs of the game. And 8, or 9, runs should be enough to win most baseball games at any level…if you can pitch.
As has become their custom this year, the Buckeyes were down 4-0 by the time they batted in the bottom of the first. Illinois scored four times off Jake Michalak when they coupled three walks with a pair of hits…4-0, Illinois.
To his credit Michalak settled in to pitch scoreless baseball over the three innings, and the offense got him within two runs in the third, highlighted by a Nick Giamarusti home run…4-2.
One that didn’t go out…centerfielder Sal Mineo runs down a bid for extra bases in the seventh inning. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
But Michalak started the fifth by walking the bases loaded, and was replaced by Noah LaFine. And from there, it turned ugly, despite LaFine getting out of the fifth with just one Illini run scored…5-2.
The Buckeyes scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth when Mason Eckelman singled to drive in Lipsey and Matt Graveline…5-4, Illinois.
But LaFine got his baptism of fire in the top of the sixth on a home run by Illinois’ Collin Jennings…and two more in the seventh on another two-run shot by Kyle Schupmann.
With a thin bullpen Justin Haire asked LaFine for three more outs in the eighth and that proved distrastrous. Jennings homered again, a three-run bomb; and Schupmann followed again with his own three-run shot over the wall in left field. In the span of thirty minutes the scored had tripled, 17-5.
Ohio State did come back to score a single run in the bottom of the eighth, before adding 4 more in the bottom of the eighth, highlighted by Lipsey’s seventh home run of the season…17-9, Illinois.
But the Illini weren’t finished and added a run in the top of the ninth on a wild pitch by Tanis Lange, who had come on to relieve LaFine in the eighth and gave up the Illini’s fifth home run of the game to catcher Jacob Schroeder.
The Buckeyes, however, were finished, unable to score in the bottom of the ninth, the game concluding after 3 hours and 6 minutes, 18-9.
Illinois (29-22, 14-15 in Big Ten) won it with 18 runs on 13 hits and had no errors.
OSU (12-37, 4-25 in Big Ten) lost it with 9 runs on 12 hits and had 2 errors.
Jake Michalak settled in after a 4-run first to pitch into the fifth.
Some big days at the plate for the Buckeyes…Trey Lipsey going 3 for 5 with a home run, Matt Graveline going 2 for 4, and Tyler Pettorini finishing 3 for 5…but it wasn’t enough when you give up 18 runs!
Michalak’s line…4.1 innings, 5 runs on 3 hits, 7 walks and 4 strikeouts.
LaFine’s line…2.2 innings, 10 runs on 7 hits, 3 walks and no strikeouts.
Lange’s line…2 innings, 3 runs on 3 hits with a pair of strikeouts and a walk.
All totaled, Buckeye pitchers walked 11 and hit a pair, setting the table for the Illini outburst.
“It was the same story that’s characterized this whole season,” said Justin Haire. “We create innings for other people, and we had the bases loaded in the seventh and we score one.
“Jake settled in after the first, but couldn’t get us through the fifth; and Noah and Tannis gave us all they had. I’m not disappointed in their effort, Illinois was just better than us.”
At least on the mound. Once again, when you score 9 runs you have to win the game, again emphasizing the recruiting need between now and next February to find and develop arms that can hold opposing teams to less than 9.
“You can’t win if you can’t pitch,” Haire added, matter-of-factly. “I’ve been on staffs that had some of the top offenses in the country, and we finished .500 because we didn’t pitch at a very high level. If you want to win at a high level you have to be able to pitch and defend, and that was true when Abner Doubleday invented the game. It’s true today, and it’ll be true a hundred years from now.
A little baseball art…Maddix Simpson turns an early double play over Illinois’ Drake Westcott.
“Nobody’s ever lost because they had too much pitching. And that’s a priority on the recruiting front, to find guys who can compete and fit our style of play. Guys who can attack the zone and do some different things. Our job is to work on the recruiting front the best we can and make sure we’re not in this position 365 days from now.”
And to Haire’s credit, we haven’t seen his style of play yet, which served him luciously well at Campbell University where he could both score, and pitch. It’s hard to style, as he’s reminded before, when you’re down ten runs in the second inning.
But for now, and one remaining game Sunday at noon, he remains stoic in his faith that the worm will turn and hard work by staff and roster, alike, will soon be rewarded. After all, UCLA finished last in the PAC 12 last year.
A year later…they’ll either be the first or second seed in next week’s Big Ten Tournament.
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