Freshman Gavin DeVooght again pitched well, two innings of hitless relief, striking out one. (Press Pros File Photos)
In a phrase, they pitched well enough to win. But the offense left for Fullerton a day early and the Buckeyes dropped game four of the Cal Poly series, 3-1.
San Luis Obispo, CA – Had the offense performed like it did in Arizona, or against Cal or Oklahoma……?
But, it didn’t in Monday’s finale of the Cal Poly series as the Buckeyes squandered a fine pitching performance by three freshmen – Chase Herrell, Gavin DeVooght, and Zach Brown – and dropped to .500 (7-7) with a 3-1 loss.
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Herrell gave up a single run in the first, and two in the second before settling in to pitch a scoreless third and fourth innings. After throwing 58 pitches he was taken down for Gavin DeVooght.
DeVooght pitched the fifth and sixth without giving up a hit, striking out one, and needed just 2o pitches to do it.
Brown came on to pitch the seventh and the eight, likewise allowing no runs on 1 hit, and threw a total of 25 pitches.
Reiterating, they pitched well enough to win on a normal night.
But starting with the plane trip to get there, there’s been nothing normal about the Buckeyes stay in northern California, losing three of four and giving up 19 runs (14 in one inning) in game two of the series.
The offense was simply shut down by Cal Poly starting pitcher Griffin Naess, a 6’6″ freshman from Laguna Beach, who worked the first five innings, giving up three hits and striking out six. Joe Mershon doubled in the second, Henry Kaczmar singled in the fourth, and Mitchell Okuley doubled in the fifth…but all three were left on base for lack of another, complementing hit.
Naess left after five, and like OSU, the Mustang’s bullpen pitched well enough to protect a 3-run lead.
Jaccob Torres pitched the sixth and seventh innings, allowing no runs on two hits; and teammate Tanner Sagouspe pitched the eighth and ninth, allowing a leadoff double in the eighth by Nolan Farley, who later scored on a ground ball out by Kaczmar.
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Cal Poly won the game with 3 runs on 8 hits and didn’t commit an error.
The Buckeyes lost it with 1 run on 6 hits and committed one error. Chase Herrell picked up his first loss of the season (0-1).
Simply put, after an off day on Tuesday they need a win at Cal State-Fullerton on Wednesday to come back East with a winning record, and with some momentum going into Morgantown to play West Virginia in single games on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
As of this writing, WVU is 9-7 on the season after winning two of three against Brigham Young over the weekend in conference play…and feature one of the nation’s top prospects for the July MLB draft in junior JJ Wetherholt. The Mountaineers will tune up for the Buckeyes by playing Marshall in a single game, in Charleston, on Tuesday.
Short Notes:
Mitch Okuley was the only Buckeye hitter to have a multiple-hit game, going 2 for 4 with a double.
Numbers on the decline….Gavin DeVooght saw his earned run average drop beneath the 1.00 mark (0.82) with his two innings of scoreless work; and Zach Brown brought his number down to 4.15.
The projected starter for Cal-State Fullerton is sophomore transfer Hunter Shaw (0-1, 7.1 innings) who will look to recapture the kind of command he had earlier against Brigham Young, his best outing to date, when he worked four hitless innings and struck out 6.
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