Starter Pierce Herrenbruck was steady, competitive, into the fifth inning – 2 runs on six hits with 5 strikeouts. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Swept in their weekend series with #1-ranked UCLA, Justin Haire’s rebuild is in full bud, waiting for bloom, and perennial status. But there are, and there will be…growing pains.
Columbus. OH – For the nice crowd that came out to Bill Davis Stadium on Sunday to see the Buckeyes play under 60-degree temperatures and bright sun, for five innings they had a glimpse of something resembling a finished product.
Starting pitcher Pierce Herrenbruck was competitive, on target…he was good, lasting into the fifth inning. His line: 4.1 innings, 2 runs on six hits, no walks, and five strikeouts. Those numbers are a bit deceiving, because he deserved a better fate.
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But then, in what seemed a replay of 2025 and the rebuild in progress, the Buckeyes would ultimately lose 10-7 to the Bruins. They gave up five runs over the final two innings when both bullpen and batting order failed to put the pieces together.
The Bruins won with 10 runs on 11 hits.
The Buckeyes lost with 7 runs on 11 hits.
But before then, the game was scoreless against UCLA starter Landon Stump after two innings when the Buckeyes came to life at the plate in the bottom of the third, scoring five runs on a pair of walks, base hits by Noah Furcht and Henry Kaczmar, a safety squeeze play, and a two-out, two-run double by designated hitter Dane Harvey.
It looked like winning baseball. There was a discernible buzz among the 1,200 or so that looked on – interest and enthusiasm. This was not Valparaiso or IUPUI, but UCLA, with the nation’s top player in Roch Cholowsky and the nation’s top home run hitter, Will Gasparino.
Hustling Vandenheuvel…Miles Vandenheuvel beats out a bunt in the third inning that led to a Buckeye run scored.
Then, an inning of back to the future in the UCLA fifth when the Bruins plated five runs on a botched fly ball in left field, a hit batsman, three consecutive singles – one a botched infield popup that should have been caught. And ultimately, a two-out bases-loaded triple by UCLA left fielder Dean Best. Five runs, on four hits, a hit batsman, an error, and baseball that was less than precise – clean.
Herrenbruck was lifted with one out in the fifth, but in retrospect might have deserved at least another out. Reliever Andrew Edrington came on and struggled with command and the confidence needed to be a door-slammer. And then…the rest of the game – and a glimpse of what’s brought them to this point.
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The Buckeyes would retake the lead, 6-5, in the bottom of the fifth on a sac fly by shortstop Lee Simpson that scored catcher Mason Eckelman.
But over the next four innings UCLA would score three runs in the eighth, and two more in the ninth against the on again, off again bullpen – Owen Graf, Alex Zamora, Zak Sigman (who left the mound in the eighth inning with an apparent arm injury) and Nick Sawyer.
The one notable exception was senior Luke Carrell, who in an inning and one-third was money…all zeroes with a strikeout.
But the collective effort over 4.2 innings was undeniable – 8 runs on 5 hits, 6 earned, with 5 strikeouts and 10 walks, all played in a tidy 4 hours and 23 minutes.
After the five win, two loss start against St. Louis and Memphis in the opening two weeks, the rebuild has regressed to a level of play that does bring one to mind of 2025. The Buckeyes have lost seven games in a row against teams that look a lot like UCLA – Texas, Mississippi, Texas, San Antonio – and teams that in Justin Haire’s words…play the game the right way.
He was not pleased with Sunday’s outcome, despite the positive start from Pierce Herrenbruck and for having taken an early, commanding five-run lead that had the nation’s top baseball team on the ropes.
Catcher Mason Eckelman scores head-first in the fifth, affording the Buckeyes their last lead in the game.
“When you don’t play the game the right way, you know…the game is the game,” Haire said. “It’s great for our conference to have the #1 team in the country in here this weekend, but if you just play the game that we’re capable of playing – the game that we’ve practiced and played our whole lives, and play with what the game requires – then we probably walk out of here with a win today. But we didn’t do that and the game has no feelings towards that. So when you don’t play fundamentally at the required level the game is going to punish you. The game is designed that way and it’s going to rip your heart out. And that’s what happened today.”
Make no mistake. There is talent. Maybe not Roch Cholowsky and Will Gasparino, but if you paid attention you saw the makings of winning baseball when paired with fundamental focus.
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You saw hard contact off the bats of CJ Reid (1 for 4), Maddix Simpson (1 for 3), Dane Harvey (3 for 5), Miles Vandenheuvel (2 for 4). And you saw athletic defense, with Vandenheuvel going to the top of the fence in the sixth inning to rob extra bases off the bat of UCLA’s Payton Brennan.
“You just play the game,” Haire added. “You don’t play the scoreboard, don’t play up five, down five…don’t play it that way. Just make the routine plays, make the pitches you need to make, execute at the plate, don’t do silly things, and you’ll be in the game. But if you don’t do those things it’s hard to overcome that stuff. And it’s doubly hard when you’re playing someone that’s really talented. It’s just disappointing with the way that we continue to play.”
Vandalia Butler baseball coach Trent Dues was an interested onlooker during Sunday’s Buckeyes-Bruins game at Bill Davis.
They had no chance on Friday and Saturday, giving up a combined 30 runs, so Sunday’s early start looked like a metamorphosis – a caterpillar becoming a butterfly.
“I thought we got better progressively throughout the weekend, we should have been better in both of the first two games – if we make more fundamental plays – and today we had a great focus and Pierce Herrenbruck gave us a great start,” Haire said.
“He really should have been out of the fifth inning, maybe with one run…who knows? If we catch the fly ball down the line the whole inning changes. Who knows? But he was really good for us, and controlled a really good lineup. So yeah, I was pleased over how we came out today, but we have to find a way where we can play consistently at a higher level.”
And starting again on Tuesday, when a tougher-than-you-might expect Kent State comes to Bill Davis, having already beaten Tennessee two out of three, and played tough on opening weekend against LSU.
And while Haire points out these missteps in focus and execution, he doesn’t play. He’s the director in charge of orchestration. There has to be some individual commitment on the part of those in the lineup.
And while he did make the point Sunday that 14 games is a small sample size – that’s there plenty of baseball to be played – it’s funny how that time slips away. And not so funny how 5-2 became 5-9 in the matter of two weeks.
Sunday both teams had 1o runs on 11 hits, and used the same number of pitchers. It’s what happened in between that cost the Buckeyes a game they could have won.
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