Grant Magrum (9) hit a towering home run for Ohio State against Michigan State on Saturday. (Press Pros Feature Photos By Julie Wright-Daniel)
Ohio State baseball couldn’t capitalize on opportunities on offense or defense and saw its four-game winning streak snapped by Michigan State on Saturday
Columbus, OH — In a perfect world, the Ohio State baseball team would ride its recent momentum through the end of the regular season and into the Big Ten Tournament.
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That sweep of Nebraska last weekend would be the turning point in the time of Justin Haire as head coach of the Buckeyes with nary a negative thought to sully the future as it becomes the present.
They started building on it well enough, crushing Michigan State 15-5 Friday night at Huntington Park in downtown Columbus — a showing so dominant they needed only eight innings thanks to the run rule.
Alas the world is not perfect.
Though some would argue baseball is the perfect game, it also has a manner of bucking expectations.
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Narratives rarely come together cleanly in a sport with so many contests, and that was the case Saturday at Bill Davis Stadium when Michigan State ended Ohio State’s four-game winning streak with a 7-4 decision in front of 1,313 fans.
The Buckeyes (25-22, 14-12 Big Ten) rallied from an early deficit to take a 2-1 lead in the fourth inning, but starter Chris Domke gave up four runs in the top of the fifth, including a pivotal three-run homer by Parker Picot that ended up being the game-winner.
Nick Williams added two-run shot off reliever Jake Michalak in the sixth — a wallscraper to the opposite field that just kept carrying until right fielder Noah Furcht ran out of room — but the Spartans (19-29, 11-18) did not end up needing those runs anyway.
The Buckeyes went down in order in the seventh, eighth and ninth, including three strikeouts to end the game — the last two looking on close pitches for outs 26 and 27.
A youth baseball team filled much of a section behind home plate, and one of its coaches called out first to Lee Ellis and then to Grant Mangrum with some free advice.
Chris Domke ran into trouble in the third and fifth innings against Michigan State.
“You can’t take those with two strikes!” he said.
That might have had some merit — particularly with the inconsistency of the home plate umpire for both teams all afternoon — but Haire did not think his offense lacked aggression late in the game.
“I mean, we’re down three right there so we need base runners for sure,” he said. “We try to have a really good plan, and I trust our guys to execute the plan. Unfortunately, we didn’t do a very good job down the stretch of being able to battle.”
If momentum in baseball is truly that day’s starting pitcher, Ohio State had to feel good with Domke toeing the rubber. He was excellent in his last two starts, holding Rutgers to three runs (one earned) in eight innings then allowing two runs (one earned) in seven against Nebraska last weekend, but Saturday was not his day.
Domke worked out of trouble in the first and second then got bailed out by his defense in the third when Alex Bemis threw out a runner at the plate from left field.
Michigan State still pushed a run across with a sacrifice bunt to go ahead 1-0, but the damage could have been greater.
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Domke followed that with a perfect fourth, but the fateful fifth followed, and that frame, too, could have been worse.
No. 9 hitter Dayton Murphy singled to start the inning then went to third on Nick Williams’ double, prompting a mound visit.
Domke got MSU left fielder Isaac Sturgess to pop out to shallow left and received a gift when MSU catcher Noah Bright failed to make contact on a suicide squeeze attempt. That resulted in Murphy being tagged out back near third base, though Williams took third on the play.
Lee Ellis finishes his home run trot for Ohio State against Michigan State on Saturday. He also stole a base.
Thus the reprieve turned out to be temporary as the Spartans tied the game anyway when Bright singled up the middle to score Williams.
Domke was still an out away from getting out of the inning having allowed only one run, but Khamaree Thomas singled to extend the inning. Then right fielder Picot blistered a pitch over the wall in left to give MSU a 5-2 lead.
“We had a chance to get off the field and didn’t get off the field,” Haire said. “We had some opportunities to score some runs that we didn’t cash in, and they did. And that’s kind of the story of today’s game.”
Ohio State got one of those runs back on a sacrifice bunt by Maddix Simpson that scored Furcht in the bottom of the fifth, and the Buckeyes scored again when Mangrum hit a towering homer to left to lead off the sixth.
The Buckeyes put two men on with one out later in the inning, but Furcht grounded into a double play.
In the sixth, Simpson legged out a hustle double and scored on Mason Eckelman’s single.
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Second baseman Lee Ellis, who produced the first Ohio State run with a laser beam homer to left in the third inning, came up next and looked like he would have his second hit of the game, but Murphy robbed him from his shortstop position by diving to snag a ball hit sharply up the middle. He threw to second to retire Eckelman while Ellis reached first safely.
Though Ellis stole second to get into scoring position with two outs, Mangrum struck out to strand him there and start the game-ending stretch of 10 straight Buckeyes being set down.
Henry Kaczmar throws to first base for Ohio State against Michigan State.
Michigan State started ace Aidan Donovan, a 6-4 sophomore who allowed eight hits but only four runs. He walked one and struck out six in seven innings to improve to 5-3.
Nolan Higgins followed him and was lights out for two innings, as the scoresheet with four strikeouts and all zeroes otherwise indicates.
“Just frustrating,” Haire said. “And tip of the cap to Michigan State. They came out and played hard, and that’s their guy. (Donovan)’s got really good numbers, and they moved him from Friday to Saturday. Higgins is their best bullpen guy, so they combined and shut us down.”
Of course the Nebraska sweep could still ultimately be a point in time long remembered, but many years will have to pass before we find out if that is the case.
For now, the focus goes on getting a series win over Michigan State on Sunday, the final Big Ten home game of the season.
Mason Eckelman had 2 hits and an RIB Saturday for Ohio State.
Then Wright State comes to town Tuesday before a regular-season-ending trip to Michigan.
A trip to Omaha for the Big Ten Tournament is likely after that, though a spot in the top 12 who qualify for it wasn’t quite sewed up yet after Saturday’s loss.
Nonetheless, the Buckeyes have full control of their future — one game at a time.
“Hopefully the future lasts one day, right?” Haire said when asked about tying recent events, Saturday’s game and the future for his program together. “Like, hopefully we get tomorrow. We’re not guaranteed that, so we don’t look too far in advance. I’m not looking to next week or to Tuesday or a month from now or a year from now. We’ve got to show up tomorrow. We got to have a chip on our shoulder. We’ve got to have a little edge. We’ve got to play with some passion. And we’ve got to find a way to finish a series.”
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