Pierce Herrenbruck (6-3) earned the win on the mound, allowing 2 runs on 5 hits over six innings. (Press Pros File Photos)
Highlighted by an 8-run seventh and a premium pitching performance by Pierce Herrenbruck, the Buckeyes start the final series of the regular season with a thumping of the team up North.
Ann Arbor, MI – Following Thursday afternoon’s 13-2 run-rule win over Michigan in the opening game of the final regular season series of the year, Ohio State coach called it “having some fun” on post-game radio with Tyler Danburg and Bob Spears.
Fun?
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That hardly makes it…for those who might remember last year’s series opener at Bill Davis Stadium, Michigan’s 23-1 run-rule win in that one, and a 16-run fourth inning against Ohio State starting pitcher Drew Erdmann.
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And if this were football, of course, a hundred thousand fans would swear they were there to witness it, even though Bill Davis only seats 5,000. Such is baseball in the Big Ten in comparison to football…like comparing a Little Debbie to Trump’s wedding cake, I suspect.
But what goes around comes around, they say, and Thursday Ohio State’s number came up big. Not 23-1 big, but big enough to cruise on five home runs…2 by Dane Harvey, 2 by Noah Furcht, and 1 by Henry Kaczmar…knocking out the same Michigan starting pitcher, Kurt Barr, who enjoyed the bounty of that blood bath a year ago.
That said, Barr enjoyed a 10-strikeout performance over his 4.2 innings of work on Thursday. But in the fifth he fell victim to the theme of that old Sinatra song, The Second Time Around the batting order.
Alex Bemis led off with a walk, Henry Kaczmar tomahawked a fastball up for a two-run homer (his 11th), and one out later Harvey crushed his second home run in as many as bats to the right of the batter’s eye in center field for a three-run inning, a 4-1 Ohio State lead, and the end of Kurt Barr’s day, statistically Michigan’s most reliable starting pitcher.
“The kind of power that can turn a game”…Dane Harvey struck home runs in the fourth and fifth innings Thursday to turn the course of the Buckeyes’ 13-2 win.
“You wouldn’t have known it the first three innings,” said Haire on post-game radio. “Because he (Barr) had all those strikeouts and he got us to chase. But the second time through we quit expanding the zone, made him work, got the pitch count up, and put some good swings on pitches.”
Including Harvey, who prior to the season Haire described as having the kind of “power that can turn a game around.” And that turned out to be the case. His solo home run in the fourth (his 18th) certainly got Kurt Barr’s attention, and tied the score at 1-1. But his following home run an inning later (his 19th) did, in fact, turn the game in a shell-shock manner, reminiscent of the 16-run inning a year ago.
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In the meantime Pierce Herrenbruck was doing what Pierce Herrenbruck does. He threw strikes, feeling for his command over the first three innings, surrendered a single run in the second, and again in the fifth inning, and settled into the familiar pattern of strikes in the bottom of the zone that resulted in ground ball outs and a pair or early fortuitous double-plays by his infield defense. His line score told the tale: 6 innings, 2 runs on 5 hits, 4 strikeouts and a pair of walks. He threw 95 pitches, 59 of them for strikes.
What Haire didn’t say was whether Herrenbruck was moved ahead of regular Friday starter Gavin Kuzniewski because of his reliability, but the transfer from Evansville and Rend Lake College is not 6-3 for no reason, and if Haire and pitching coach Tyler Robinson did reach up their sleeve for an ace, one can hardly question.
Leading 4-2 after the fifth, the Buckeyes added an insurance run in the sixth on an RBI single by Alex Bemis, driving in Lee Ellis. And an inning later – the fateful 7th – the Buckeyes cashed in, double-indemnity style.
Noah Furcht led off with his 11th home run. Dane Harvey was plunked by pitcher Keegan O’Hearn. O’Hearn then hit Maddix Simpson. Lee Ellis singled, driving in Harvey. Grant Mangrum walked. Miles Vandenheuval singled. Bemis walked. And Noah Furcht launched his second homer of the inning over the brick wall in left (his 12th) to drive in three runs and cap off an 8-run inning that did resemble May 3 of a year ago.
Herrenbruck was taken down after the sixth, reliever Ryan Zamora came on to face four hitters, record the final three outs, and the Buckeyes had run-ruled the Wolverines to take game one of the series.
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OSU won it with 13 runs on 11 hits and left 6 on base. Pierce Herrenbruck was the winning pitcher.
Michigan lost with 2 runs on 6 hits and left 6 on base. Kurt Barr was the losing pitcher (5-4).
Game two will be played Friday at 4 pm, and good seats, of course, are still available, along with numerable reasons to press their Thursday advantage with the Big Ten Tournament just a week away.
But just in case, you can watch it on Big Ten Plus, or listen on 1460 WBNS AM, with Tyler Danburg and Bob Spears.
We’ll know more soon enough about good karma, and bad karma. Playing relevant baseball. And the residual effects of that first weekend in May, 2025.
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