A highlight…GCU’s Eric Yorke is cut down at home plate on a throw from Josh Stevenson to Henry Kaczmar to Matt Graveline in the bottom of the of the fifth inning. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Chalk it up as a learning experience against one of the best hitting teams they’ll see all season. Grand Canyon raked for 18 hits in a 10-3 win over the youthful Buckeyes.
Phoenix, AZ – Among the things the Ohio State Buckeyes learned Tuesday evening in downtown Phoenix…you have to execute your secondary pitches against a good-hitting team that feasts off the fastball.
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And that, in a nutshell, is the game story of a 10-3 defeat to Grand Canyon University (4-0), one of the nation’s best Division I baseball programs currently not listed in the NCAA’s Top 25.
The Buckeyes, fresh off their Sunday 5-2 win over Southern California, gave up 18 hits, struck out 14 times at the plate, offensively, and collected just five hits against five different GCU pitchers in a game that coach Bill Mosiello later passed off as a learning experience.
“Tonight was a good old-fashioned butt kickin’,” Mosiello said. “They’re a good hitting team, we made a lot of bad pitches, and they were ready to hit. They did a great job, the exact opposite of us, offensively.”
If this were a major league spring training game, it would be simply be characterized as a day to forget. But in college baseball nothing is forgotten for the sake of wins and losses, RPI, and overall competitiveness at the end of the season, relative to at-large bids for the NCAA tournament.
That said, the Buckeyes sent true freshman Chase Herrell (Milford High School) to the mound to make his first collegiate start. And with the ides of March still days away, GCU stung him early, in the bottom of the first on a base hit and a dropped fly ball by Trey Lipsey in left that allowed an unearned run and a 1-0 GCU lead.
Freshman Chase Herrell got the start for the Buckeyes, pitching three innings while giving up a run on four hits.
Herrell, for the most part, competed through three innings, allowing just that one run while surrendering four hits and a walk, without benefit of a single strikeout.
He was replaced on the mound by another freshman, Zach Brown, in the fourth. But after pitching a scoreless fourth, Brown didn’t fare nearly so well in the fifth. He gave up a pair of runs on consecutive hits – single, double, single – before being replaced by yet another freshman, Gavin DeVooght.
DeVooght retired the final two outs with Ohio State trailing, 3-0, entering the sixth.
Held to just two hits through the first four innings by GCU starter Ben Smith, the Buckeyes awakened against reliever David Case in the top of the sixth on back-to-back walks, a base hit by Joe Mershon – forcing a pitching change – and a game-tying single to right field by Mitchell Okuley. Just that quickly, the game was tied at 3-3 entering the bottom of the sixth.
OSU second baseman Joe Mershon turns a critical double to kill a GCU rally in the third inning.
But DeVoogth came out to start the sixth and immediately ran into trouble surrendering a run on a single and RBI double before being replaced by sophomore transfer Blaine Wynk. Wynk, again, retired the side without further damage, with the Buckeyes now trailing 4-3.
Now in the bottom of the sixth Wynk ran into big trouble. GCU scored five times on a walk and four consecutive hits, the crowning blow a three-run, two-out home run by Cade Verdusco, extending the Antelopes’ lead to 9-3. Making yet another pitching change, Logan Jones came on for Ohio State to record the final out.
GCU again scored in the bottom of the eighth, this time off reliever Jaylen Jones, the Buckeyes’ sixth pitcher, as he walked the first two hitters he faced before being replaced by Jacob Morin, a transfer from Tennessee Tech. Morin retired the side without further damage, but now trailed, 10-3.
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After a leadoff walk to start the ninth, the Buckeyes proceeded to strike out for the final three outs of the game, raising their game total to 14, many of them ‘called’ third strikes.
The final line: Ohio State lost it with 3 runs on 5 hits and committed 2 errors. Grand Canyon won it with 10 runs on 18 hits and played error-free baseball.
Given that three freshmen and a pair of transfers seeking to make an impression pitched for Ohio State, it wasn’t nearly the kind of effort needed against a team that hits like Grand Canyon. Too many mistakes in the strike zone, failure to execute the secondary pitches, and four walks all combined to provide for a veritable hammering by GCU hitters. The Antelopes finished with five hitters having 2-hit games, or better…and two of those five finishing with 4-hit games.
Another twin killing….OSU’s Henry Kaczmar turns a double play to limit damage in the eighth.
In the meantime, an old nemesis crept back into the Buckeyes routine as 14 hitters struck out – a frustrating offensive performance.
“Give them a lot of credit,” added Mosiello. “It was one of those days when they hit all the mistakes that we made.
“Our three freshmen didn’t handle things very well, and that’s just part of the maturation process. We have to find out more about who these guys are because it’s part of being young, and they’re having their ups and downs so far. Hitters at this level make you pay quickly for your mistakes and we have to find out who those nine pitchers are that we can go to.”
The 14 strikeouts were another matter, and one that caught Mosiello without an answer, or statement, for that matter.
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“14 strikeouts?” he said, shaking his head. “There’s not much you can say about that.”
They have a day off on Wednesday to regroup before beginning a weekend four-game series against Arizona State. The Sun Devils are 3-1 after taking two of three against Santa Clara, and winning 9-6 over Kansas State on Wednesday.
Glass half full? Ohio State is 2-2 after four games against four very good baseball teams. The ups and downs, as Mosiello mentioned, are part of the the transition, not only to college baseball, but if you think of it in terms of major league spring training…those teams play 30 games trying to put things together, and still start the season with many of the same issues of pitching consistency and irregular offense.
It’s early, and to a man the belief is that this Ohio State team is talented, enthusiastic, and far from playing their best baseball. And still, they’ve won already against two of the best from the West, Brigham Young and Southern Cal.
Stay tuned for more.
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