Having a great under-the-radar-season at third base, Maddix Simpson delivered the winning knock in Sunday’s 3-2 extra inning win over Michigan State. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Twenty four hours after Justin Haire asked for focus and a series win over Michigan State, sophomore Maddix Simpson delivered a game-winning hit in the bottom of the tenth to guarantee the series and nothing less than a .500 finish for the year.
Just for this day, or the time it takes to read, imagine a year ago at the penultimate weekend of the Big Ten schedule.
The Buckeyes were sitting on twelve conference wins on their way to what would become a 13-37 season, Michigan was in town, and TTUN ignominiously swept Justin Haire’s first Buckeye team, and enjoyed it. Every minute of it.
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Fast forward, of course, to compare. Sitting on a record of 26-22, overall, and 15-12 against the league, the Buckeyes guaranteed themselves Sunday the ultimate redemptive opportunity come next weekend with a 3-2 win in ten innings Sunday against Michigan State, the memorable knock coming on Maddix Simpson’s base hit with two outs to drive in Alex Bemis with the winning run.
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And just for this day, and their final non-conference game with Wright State on Tuesday, it’s now a whole new world when they finish against Michigan next week…for pride, for Big Ten Tournament seeding, and perfect rivalry scenario to cap off what no lucid person saw coming last May.
No limping to the finish line. And the season’s highlight can be something oh-so-better than Tyler Pettorini’s walk-off double to take the final game of the year against Illinois a year ago.
The Buckeyes will travel to Ann Arbor in seventh place, two games behind Michigan (in sixth), and will have the chance to win a series or even exchange places with the Wolverines. Michigan currently sits 17-10 in the Big Ten, Ohio State sits 15-12, and a series sweep would effectively salve a lot of wounds.
“I’m not looking to next week or to Tuesday or a month from now or a year from now,” Haire said following Saturday’s 7-4 loss to MSU. “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.”
Check…check…check…check…and check. They did all five.
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And again proved that anything is possible when you get dependable starting pitching, which Pierce Herrenbruck delivered over the game’s first five innings. Perfect? No, but he kept the Buckeyes in the game with single runs surrendered in the first and fourth innings.
Meanwhile, OSU’s batting order delivered no runs on two hits through its first fifteen outs.
Herrenbruck was taken down after the fifth, replaced by Nick Sawyer, who pitched a perfect sixth.
Sawyer was replaced in the seventh by Lincoln McVicker, who pitched a scoreless seventh, eighth, and ninth, surrendering just 4 hits.
Mason Eckelman against proved to be clutch with an RBI double to drive in a run in the bottom of the seventh.
And the Buckeyes found offensive life in the bottom of the seventh, scoring on a base hit by Simpson and an RBI double by Mason Eckelman.
In the eighth they struck a tying blow, an RBI double by Noah Furcht that scored Alex Bemis.
After a scoreless ninth, Luke Carrell came on to pitch a tenuous tenth, which included a pair of hits and a hit batsman, but Carrell somehow found the final out to strand the bases loaded.
In the bottom of the tenth Bemis led off by reaching first on an error by the MSU shortstop. Henry Kaczmar struck out against MSU reliever Nolan Higgins. Noah Furcht lifted a fly ball to right for the second out. Higgins then intentionally walked Dane Harvey to move Bemis into scoring position, and brought Maddix Simpson to the plate. Simpson lined a single to center, Bemis scored from second…and what do you know.
They showed up.
Played with a little edge.
Showed some passion when it mattered most.
And they found a way to finish a series…Luke Carrell enjoying his first win of the season out of the bullpen.
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So now they face Wright State on Tuesday, still needing to play with some passion, and mindful not to get ahead of themselves.
And one way or another they go to Michigan with a ‘paybacks are tough’ chip.
And importantly, they’re going to finish the regular season with either a winning record or no less than 13 games better than last year.
And yes, the tournament looks oh so promising!
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But hey, first things first. And let’s count on the starting pitching showing up again in the manner of Nebraska. Michigan is hitting .277 as a team, 30 points beneath what Nebraska was hitting when they came to Bill Davis, and we know that the weekend rotation is certainly capable.
Ohio State is hitting .266 as a team, but the pitching staff has improved to a 5.63 ERA, compared to Michigan’s 4.90.
A challenge? By all means. And no one’s looking past Wright State, a .500 team (24-23) that hits .295; and they give up their share of runs.
Once again. Can they come ready to play, and play with a chip, with an edge, and with some passion?
Because here’s what’s possible. Do all the above – do what the 2023 team when they won the last nine games of the season – and 30 wins are possible.
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Win three out of four and you could still win a series against Michigan. Split the four and you could win a series in Michigan.
Their season is in their hands. Everything they’ve talked about since last June.
No one thought they’d see it, but it’s here, and it’s here for the taking.
Everything they just proved…against Michigan State.
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