Starter Chris Domke pitched into the sixth inning, allowing a run on 7 hits to deliver a 3-2 Saturday win over Penn State. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Sonny Fulks)
The Buckeyes bounced back from back-to-back losses to beat Penn State on Saturday and give themselves a chance for a third consecutive conference series win on Sunday.
Columbus, OH – Credit to the 2026 Buckeyes for this much. It’s been a minute since they were motivated to keep a string of consecutive conference series wins alive and their standing for a spot in the Big Ten Tournament come season’s end.
But following Friday afternoon’s 10-6 debacle at the hands of 10-22 Penn State (4-10), that was exactly the concern at Bill Davis Stadium on Saturday afternoon prior to the Buckeyes’ bounce-back 3-2 win over the Nittany Lions. Currently hovering around sixth place in the Big Ten standings, it’s suddenly a priority to take care of business against teams they should beat…like Penn State. After all, it hasn’t been that long since the Buckeyes were walking in Penn State’s shoes.
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It hasn’t been that long since the Buckeyes were concerned with snapping a losing streak, either, even a two-game streak following a mid-week loss to Bowling Green and Friday’s opener with PSU.
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“We needed to bounce back,” said starting pitcher Chris Domke following his 5.2 innings of 1-run, 7-hit baseball delivered exactly that in front of 1,765 sun-bathed patrons at Bill Davis.
Only Scottie Scheffler had a better day as the Buckeyes combined consistent starting work from Domke, some timely offense, and airtight defense to win their 18th against 15 losses, overall, and improve to 8-6 in conference play.
And they got at it immediately in the bottom of the first with a leadoff walk to Alex Bemis, a pair of hit batsmen, and a sac fly by first baseman Dane Harvey…1-0, Buckeyes.
They added in the bottom of the third on a base hit by Bemis and an RBI double by right fielder Noah Furcht…2-0, Buckeyes.
An ‘A’ for effort, but this line drive evaded the catch attempt of Alex Bemis for a Penn State double and run scored in the top of the ninth.
From there, Domke clung to that lead like grim death, scattering 7 hits over his 5.2 innings of work that came to an end in the top of the sixth when the Nittany Lions put the first two hitters on, and with two outs got an RBI single from left fielder Avery Smith. Reliever Nick Sawyer came on to retire the final out with the Buckeyes leading, 2-1.
“It’s all about pounding the strike zone,” said Domke (4-3) about his consistency shown over the past month – arguably the most consistent of the Buckeye starters.
“Coach Robinson puts a good scouting report together for me, and then it’s about pounding the zone and pitching ahead. I know I haven’t had my best stuff for the past few starts, but putting the ball in the strike zone and letting my defense work has really been beneficial.
“It’s about trusting the defense. I expect them to make plays for me, and they expect me to make quality pitches and keep the ball in the park. And I’ve had my issues with that,” he added with a smile. “But when it’s in the yard and those guys can go make plays for me it does wonders.”
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Something else that does wonders is a dependable bullpen, and over the past six weeks the pre-season optimism of Justin Haire and pitching coach Ty Robinson have come to fruition. Saturday it was the work of Nick Sawyer (1.1 innings of no-run, no-hit baseball), and the work of Ryan Zamora in the eighth and the ninth, despite Penn State stringing together a one-out walk in the ninth with an RBI double by Jayden Davis to trim the Buckeyes’ margin to 3-2. Zamora then recorded the game’s final out on a strikeout of cleanup hitter Bryce Molinaro.
Second baseman Lee Ellis squandered a PSU rally in the fifth with this unassisted double play.
The Buckeyes won it with 3 runs on just 4 hits and played error-free.
Penn State lost it with 2 runs on 9 hits and likewise, committed no errors.
“Today was how you win baseball games,” Justin Haire smiled over evening the series.
“Just score one more run than the other team at the end of nine, and that was the message at the end of last night. We’ve got to play nine good innings, regardless of what happens. It doesn’t matter. We’ve got to play nine full innings and we didn’t do that yesterday, or Tuesday when we lost to Bowling Green. Today, Domke was great, Sawyer was good coming out of the bullpen, and Zamora was pretty good there at the end. Today was better and we’ll take ’em any way we can get ’em. And it’s hard, as you know, sometimes.”
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And is it possible, perhaps, that with three consecutive series wins, two series sweeps, and a chance to take the series Sunday, that Friday’s up and down 10-6 loss was simply a matter of baseball hiccups? And hiccups do happen, even in the big leagues.
Ryan Zamora got the closing duties on Saturday and held Penn State to a run on two hits to gain the save.
“Yes, it happens,” said Haire. “But…was it a hiccup on Tuesday against Bowling Green? Because we didn’t play well in that game. And yesterday our offense disappeared and our pitching was spotty.
“This is what I know. If you want to be really good, if you want to compete for championships, those hiccups don’t happen very often. And they definitely don’t happen twice in a week.
“You course correct as quickly as you possibly can and find ways to move forward. So for us, as we keep trying to be a Top 25 caliber program we’ve got to learn those lessons quickly and move on, because whatever that happened yesterday has to change. That’s the game, and it’s not even the opponent. It can happen against UCLA or it can happen against Penn State.”
So Sunday they get that chance for a fourth straight series win when starter Pierce Herrenbruck takes the mound for the Buckeyes at 1 pm. As to Haire’s concerns about hiccups…..
“I expect Pierce to take the ball and give us a quality start,” said teammate Chris Domke, with a twinkle in his eye.
And a twinkle that wasn’t there when expectations weren’t so high back when they were losing ten of eleven in March.
These are now the ‘bounce-back’ Buckeyes.
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