Sophomore Gavin Kuzniewski delivered his best starting performance as a Buckeye, allowing one run on four hits over eight innings to defeat Nebraska Friday 2-1. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Sophomore Gavin Kuzniewski delivered the best starting performance of the year, and a couple of sacrifice fly balls were enough to support a 2-1 opening win over second-place Nebraska.
Columbus, OH – In the end, a sacrifice fly ball by designated hitter Grant Mangrum in the second inning…and a sacrifice fly ball by Lee Ellis in the sixth were all the run support necessary to take Friday night’s critical Big Ten game with second-place Nebraska, 2-1.
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Impressive, for sure. But it was the in-between that put the Ohio State Buckeyes in position to win what was eye-opening – the kind of baseball that programs have to have to get to that “top 25” position that Justin Haire talked about a month ago.
“You have to do the little things every day,” said Haire, following the Penn State series. “And you have to do them all together.”
In baseball, that means not just pitching, and not just hitting. You have to have pitching and hitting, together, and sophomore righthander Gavin Kuzniewski delivered a gem effort Friday, allowing just one Nebraska run on four hits over eight innings to garner his fourth win of the season against two losses. He struck out five Nebraska hitters, and walked three.
Defense?
The Buckeyes provided that, too, playing errorlessly behind Kuzniewski, who threw an even 100 pitches to record his 24 outs faced.
The importance of doing it together?
The Buckeyes, themselves, had but 4 hits – three singles and a double by third baseman Maddix Simpson, who had the only multi-hit night by either team.
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But let’s be honest. The importance of Gavin Kuzniewski, who attained the ultimate responsibility of making those two runs and four hits stand up for the team’s 22nd win of the season, and their 11th conference win against 11 conference losses. The Buckeyes currently occupy the eighth position in the conference standings, two games ahead of ninth-place Illinois.
Final Lines:
The Buckeyes won it with two runs on four hits and committed no errors.
Nebraska lost it (34-12, 17-5) with one run on four hits and had one error.
Game two will be played during Alumni Weekend festivities today, first pitch to be thrown at 7 p.m. … the game to be featured on the Big Ten Network.
Junior righthander Chris Domke is scheduled to pitch for the Buckeyes.
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