The best piece of hitting was no hitting at all…Mitchell Okuley (2 for 3 on the day) eyes ball four in the ninth, driving in the winning run (4-3) over Oklahoma. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Sonny Fulks)
Ohio State’s young bullpen came on strong, overcoming an early costly error and an unexciting offense to give the Buckeyes a chance for a 4-3, ninth inning win over Oklahoma in Sunday’s finale of the Las Vegas Classic.
Las Vegas, NV – It’s hard to counter, or question Bill Mosiello sometimes because he likes his baseball played just so – good pitching, good defense, and enough timely hitting.
Anything short of that and ‘Mo’ is usually quick to point out how it could have been better.
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But Sunday’s 4-3 ninth inning win over the University of Oklahoma in the finale of the Las Vegas Classic forced him to flash a satisfied smile and an expression of pride over the manner in which his young baseball team fought through some adversity for their sixth win of the season.
“I’m never going to apologize for a win,” he began. “But today was a tough deal. They (Oklahoma) got their two runs early there on a fly ball in the wind to the one guy [in the outfield] that you want to get to the ball (Josh Stevenson). Crazy wind, and it was unfortunate that the ball dropped.
“But we showed some character today. The pitching was outstanding. And even if we had lost I’d much rather lose when we pitch and play clean defense than a game that’s a big slugfest. So again, lucky that our bullpen was set up for Purcell to come in, and Shaw was available because we didn’t play yesterday, but we’ll take it. They, along with DeVooght and Eckhardt were great.”
Adversity in the third…centerfielder Josh Stevenson has a fly ball carom off his glove allowing a pair of unearned runs by Oklahoma.
What he referred to was a pair of third inning runs by Oklahoma after Ohio State had taken an early first inning lead on a pair of walks to Trey Lipsey and Henry Kaczmar, followed by an RBI single by Tyler Pettorini. Starter Gavin Bruni then navigated through the first two innings, allowing a tying home run by left fielder Kendall Pettis in the second, while he fought his control, his pitch count, and tried to find a groove to better efficiency.
The Buckeyes retook the lead in the top of the third on a hit batsman and three consecutive singles…but left the bases loaded without further damage after strikeouts to Stevenson and Hunter Rosson.
But in the bottom of the third Oklahoma got back to back walks after Bruni had retired the first two outs, bringing third baseman Mike Snyder to the plate. Bruni threw a fastball in on his fists, Snyder lifted it behind shortstop and into that twisting, gusting wind that made anything hit in the air this weekend an opportunity for embarrassment. Kaczmar went out, centerfielder Josh Stevenson, a magician with the glove, came in and called Kaczmar off, then had the ball hit off the webbing of his Wilson and fall to the ground. Both runners scored and Oklahoma led, 3-2.
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In the meantime the Buckeyes’ potent offense of late suddenly went dormant. After missing a golden opportunity in the top of the third, they would not have another hit until the top of the eighth when Mitchell Okuley collected a single, his second hit of the day.
But enter the impact of the bullpen…as pitching coach Sean Allen brought in yesterday’s unused starter, Colin Purcell, to replace Bruni and retire the final out of the ugly third. And Purcell proceeded to give the Buckeyes a blueprint of things to come over the final six innings.
The transfer from Texas A&M (Corpus Christi) would pitch 3.1 innings of no-run, one-hit baseball, striking out four and walking one. His best fastball registered 92, but his ability to change speeds kept the Sooners guessing.
Oklahoma, behind the pitching of lefthander James Hitt clung to their lead through the fifth, when Hitt was taken down for righthander Kyson Witherspoon, and Witherspoon would mow down the batting order into the eighth, striking out four, needing just 55 pitches to do it.
Purcell pitched into the sixth when Hunter Shaw came on to retire first two Oklahoma hitters, surrendering a base hit.
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Allen again came to the mound with two outs and brought on righthander Gavin DeVoogth, who pitched the next inning and a third, giving up a hit and a walk, and delivered Ohio State to the fateful top of the ninth.
Witherspoon had cruised on those 55 pitches, but needing three outs to finish off a 3-2 win, he ran into trouble with leadoff hitter, Hank Thomas, who pinch hit for Hunter Rosson to lead off the inning. Thomas lifted a single to center. Third baseman Zach Fjelstad followed with another single and Witherspoon was taken down for his twin brother, Malachi Witherspoon.
Hank Thomas’s pinch hit single started the Buckeyes’ winning ninth inning.
‘Brother’ Witherspoon struck out Trey Lipsey, bringing up Kaczmar, who lifted a two-strike fastball into the wind swirling out in leftfield. Kendall Pettis, who had the home run in the second, suddenly found himself in Josh Stevenson’s shoes, fighting the wind and over-ran the baseball. It dropped for an error, filling the bases. Pettorini followed with a ground ball to short that was played into an error, allowing pinch runner CJ Richard to score the tying run, 3-3, and that brought Mitchell Okuley to the plate.
Okuley, with two hits on the day, did his best piece of hitting by not hitting at all. Instead, he worked Witherspoon into a bases-loaded walk, scoring another pinch-runner Nick Giamarusti with the go-ahead run, 4-3. Mershon then struck out, sending the game to the bottom of the ninth, now with the Buckeyes needing the final three outs to win.
Alternating of late with Blaine Wynk for closing duties, Justin Eckhardt came on to get those three outs and quickly dispatched the first two on a fly ball to Stevenson in center and a ground ball to Mershon at second base. But he then allowed back-to-back walks to outfielders John Spikerman and Anthony Mackenzie, bringing right fielder Easton Carmichael to the plate.
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Eckhardt challenged Carmichael with his best fastball, Carmichael lifted it to Okuley in right, and the Buckeyes had the 4-3 win.
They won it on 4 runs, 9 hits, and committed one error.
Oklahoma lost it with 3 runs on just 5 hits, and committed 2 errors.
Gavin DeVoogth recorded his first win as a Buckeye, and Eckhardt got the save.
Justin Eckhardt and catcher Mason Eckelman celebrate the final out in Ohio State’s 4-3 win over Oklahoma.
They say you see and hear things in Las Vegas that you just don’t get anywhere else. And when the Buckeyes got to their locker room the hit king, Pete Rose, was there to greet them and give his version of a pep talk that was later said to be something better kept in the clubhouse.
Outside, shortstop Henry Kaczmar talked about the fateful ninth, and the fact of the now 6-4 Buckeyes recording another win over quality competition while fighting through adversity.
“Honestly, I was just sitting on the fastball,” said Kaczmar of his ninth inning swirler that got the best of Kendal Pettis. “He (Witherspoon) was throwing hard and I was trying to be early, but I was still late on it. But I got enough barrel on the ball to get up into the wind and move the runners.
“Today was great to see the fight we had even after all the goose eggs we had on the board. I felt like we really stuck together there at the end, and we deserved to win this one.”
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If you don’t know Justin Eckhardt’s back story, he transferred from Texas last year where in three previous seasons he had experienced some history with the Oklahoma Sooners. This particular win was, for that fact, a little more special.
Catcher Matt Graveline knocks off a critical Oklahoma runner at the plate in the eighth on a throw from shortstop Henry Kaczmar.
“Yeah, it was great to see the team fight back late like we did. We didn’t give up, give in, and that’s who we are. I’m proud of how we handled some adversity today, and me as a Texas guy I don’t have much love for the Oklahoma fan base, so getting the save over them was awesome.”
The locker room was jubilant, as wins over two more quality opponents in California and Oklahoma set the stage for a happy flight back to Columbus. And had someone told Mosiello three weeks ago that his team would come through the first two weekends with wins over Southern Cal, Arizona (twice), Cal and Oklahoma, four historic cornerstones of Division I baseball, he might have been rendered speechless.
“This makes it a nicer flight home,” he smiled. “But we got to get ready for next week (Cal Poly and Cal State Fullerton), and we’re excited to go. The goal doesn’t change for us. We’ve got to get better every day. We’ll keep working and these games are setting us up to be the best team we can be in the Big Ten.”
That’s all you need to know. And what Pete Rose had to say is probably best described by the well-known line from the television ads.
What’s said in Vegas, stays in Vegas!
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Some other notes:
Matt Graveline (.278), Tyler Pettorini (.342) and Mitchell Okuley (.432) all had multi-hit games, collecting two hits each and six of the Buckeyes’ total of nine.
Freshman Zach Fjelstad went 1 for 3 to raise his average to .333 (5 for 15).
How good was the bullpen? Colin Purcell, Hunter Shaw, Gavin DeVoogth and Justin Eckhardt combined to pitch 6.1 innings of scoreless baseball, allowing just 3 hits while striking out 5 and walking 4.
Starter Gavin Bruni’s pitch count (60) no doubt had a lot to do with his early exit from the game – that and Mosiello’s desire to get some work in for Purcell and Shaw who were rained out on Saturday.
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