The pitching was good enough, and the offense was big with Noah Furcht and Mason Eckelman. Combined, it was good enough to beat Minnesota in game 2 of the series and play for a sweep on Sunday.
Minneapolis, MN – Understand that the Minnesota Gophers are a work in progress, themselves. And the Ohio State Buckeyes are not yet the ’27 Yankees.
But day by day the Buckeyes are becoming Justin Haire’s vision over the off-season and Saturday took the second game of the Minnesota series, 9-3, improving to 12-13 for the season, 3-5 in the conference, and a far cry from what they were a year ago three weeks into Big Ten competition.
Saturday, behind Chris Domke’s 5-plus innings as a starter, the Buckeyes pounded out 9 runs (5 in the last two innings) on 8 hits in a 9-3 win…in a game where the middle of the batting order, 3,4,and 5, had 6 hits, scored 5 runs, and drove in 6. Noah Furcht and Mason Eckelman each had a pair of hits, and first baseman Dane Harvey drove in four.
Domke pitched two outs deep into the sixth, allowing no runs on just 4 hits, while striking out 3 and walking 2.
And for a second straight day, the bullpen came to the rescue with efficiency and confidence.
Luke Carrell and Nick Sawyer combined for 3.1 innings of 3-run, 4-hit baseball to close out the game. Not exactly squeaky clean, but when you’re scoring runs you have some wiggle room. And this weekend the offense is giving them space.
The series concludes tomorrow with a rare chance for a conference sweep.
Game time on Sunday is 2 PM, eastern time, and you can watch the action on Big Ten Plus.
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