Homer to remember….Trey Lipsey’s ninth inning home run leaves the bat, driving in three, and lifting the Buckeyes to a 12-10 win over Purdue. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Sonny Fulks and Julie Wright)
Trey Lipsey’s walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth made up for a day of insufficency on the mound, proves sweet revenge of the Buckeyes.
Columbus, OH – For the way it ended – Trey Lipsey’s dramatic three-run homer to walk it off in the bottom of the ninth – Saturday’s 12-10 Buckeye win over Purdue could prove to be something.
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Or, given some other insufficiencies of the day…it could amount to nothing at all.
After squandering an early 3-1 lead in the third inning, the Buckeyes were forced to play catch-up all day long. And while the offense gave them all they could possibly ask for in terms of opportunities, the pitching never figured it out. It takes both to win a ballgame.
Being that pitching is 80% of he game, it’s a pretty good idea on days when the wind is howling out to left to throw strikes and eliminate as many free bases as possible.
Staked to that early 3-1 lead, Gavin Bruni, for the third start in a row, would last just 2.2 innings, and 77 pitches. He walked 3 and struck out 2, but when he was in the strike zone he seemed to become predictable. After being on and off for the first two innings, he was chased in the top of the third when Purdue reached him for three base hits, three runs, and Sean Allen came to the mound for the earliest Bruni extraction of the year.
Tyler Pettorini celebrates his eighth inning two-run homer that brought them to within a run.
Enter Colin Purcell. Without lingering on specifics, Purcell would face eight batters, surrender 6 hits, including a home run by Purdue’s Keenan Taylor, and finish out the inning having given up 3 runs on 6 hits…on just 31 pitches.
More importantly he and Bruni had given up the lead – 6 runs in the inning – the momentum, and put the Boildermakers in feeding frenzy at the bat rack. They couldn’t wait to get up to the plate and hit.
The Buckeyes, now trailing 6-3, got one of them back in the bottom of the third on Matt Graveline’s home run, a laser to left center.
Chase Herrell entered to pitch in the fourth and quickly gave up Graveline’s run on a pair of doubles. Purdue crept back ahead, 8-3.
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But Purdue starter Luke Wagner was having as much trouble dealing with properity as Bruni had had for the Buckeyes. In the bottom of the fourth OSU would score three times on a single by Kaczmar, a double by Graveline, a triple by Pettorini, and another following triple by Joe Mershon to score three times…8-7, Purdue.
There was some defense…OSU’s Matt Gravline knocks off a Purdue runner at the plate in the second inning.
Herrell would pitch one out deep into the fifth before running into his own control problems, loading the bases. Zach Brown entered the game and stranded those runners with a 6-4-3 double play and a fly ball to Lipsey in left.
But in the sixth Purdue scratched Brown for run on a base-loaded single to extend their lead to 9-7.
Neither team scored in the seventh, but Purdue was prosperous in the eighth when Brown simply ran out of luck – a walk, a hit batsman, and an RBI single by Thomas Green. Jacob Morin came on in relief with two out to retire the final out, but trailed now 10-7.
Ohio State third baseman Tyler Pettorini was well on his way to having one of his best days as a collegiate hitter…with a pair of singles and a triple when he came to bat in the eighth.
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With two outs in the inning against Purdue’s hard-throwing Jackson Dannelley, Matt Graveline worked him for a critical two-out walk, bringing Pettorini to the plate. After looking at a couple of Dannelley fastballs, Pettorini unloaded on another one right down the middle of the plate – a towering, majestic shot to right field that no one even moved to chase. They just turned to watch. It cleared the fence to the right of the 370 mark, well over 400 feet, chasing Graveline home in front of him. Ohio State had crept to within a run at 10-9.
Trey Lipsey had a big day…his second inning triple missed leaving the park by this much.
Jacob Morin retired the side in the top of the ninth, an omen perhaps, as now it was the Buckeyes frothing to get back in the dugout and back to the plate.
Mitchell Okuley had had a rough day, but now with Dannelley entrusted to protect the lead and a win, he promptly hit Okuley in the foot to put him on first.
More, on a wild pitckoff attempt at first, he threw the ball past the first baseman and down the right field line in foul territory, allowing Okuley to run all the way to third base with no one out.
With the infield in Nick Giamarusti grounded to third for the first out of the inning. Okuley had to stand.
With one out Hank Thomas was hit by a pitch, putting runners on first and third. CJ Richards came out to runner for Thomas.
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Pinch-hitter Isaac Cadena came off the bench to hit for Josh Stevenson, and lifted a fly to left, but not deep enough in the mind of Bill Mosiello coaching at third to attempt to score Okuley. Now there were two outs.
Trey Lipsey was one for four on the day, having tripled back in the second inning. But now he had an opportunity to do something really special.
There has to be a little pain…OSU’s Henry Kaczmar takes one off the shoulder in Saturday’s 12-10 win over Purdue.
“I felt great,” said Lipsey afterwards. “I had God with me and he helped me. I think he blew that one out for me.”
On the second strike he saw from Dannelley he struck, driving a fastball to the opposite field, but high enough to take advantage of the prevailing wind. Purdue’s Mike Bolton turned and ran to the wall but he had no chance. Ball gone, game gone, Okuley and Richards scoring ahead of Lipsey, whose feet barely touched the ground has he rounded the bases and was engulfed by the Buckeye dugout when he reached home.
“I said to myself that I was going to do it,” said Lipsey. “I was up there for a reason and luckily I got a good pitch to hit. This could be a season-changing win. We started off kinda’ rough, but we just kept chipping away. We got the ‘Dub’.”
Nobody had a better day at the plate than Pettorini, but struggling to speak over his ear-to-ear smile, he deferred to his teammate in his biggest moment.
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“This was the best competitive game of my life,” said Pettorini. “I’m proud of how we fought all the way through, and when Lipsey came to the plate I had a feeling. He’s a really good player. Now we go get ’em tomorrow.”
Amidst all the back slapping and hugging in front of the third base dugout, shortstop Henry Kaczmar quietly paid tribute to the game of baseball and the attribute to just keep fighting.
He can play some right field, but Mitchell Okuley couldn’t come up with this line drive in the sixth.
“This has got to be #1 in terms of games I’ve been a part of,” said Kaczmar. “It was just a dog fight all the way to the end. And Lipsey finally got a ball over the plate and did damage on it. He sent us home with a win.
“It was just nice to take advantage of the opportunities they gave up there in the ninth. And with the hitters we had come to the plate there in the inning I definitely felt like we were going to pull it out. It was a fun one. Definitely #1.”
Finally, Bill Mosiello, who could lament the lack of pitching, could not find fault with the character of his batting order and those massive, timely hits supplied in the first, second, third, fourth, eighth and ninth innings.
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“This was pretty awesome,” he began. “And with the connection we have as a club we just kept playing offense all day, and we played error-free baseball again.
“We just couldn’t pitch. Our bugaboo right now is we can’t get any length out of our second starter. We have to find someone that can get late in the game for us. Today, right when you think Bruni is going to get through the inning, he doesn’t, and Purcell really isn’t the kind of guy you want to bring in with traffic.
“Brown was really good for his couple of innings, but he should have been out of the game. We just don’t have anyone to go to, and in my mind we have nine innings to go tomorrow. We don’t have a real starter tomorrow, and we’ll have to make it a bullpen game from the beginning.”
One coming home, one going home (background)…Trey Lipsey touches second base following his ninth inning walk-off home run.
They won it (12-11, 2-0 in the Big Ten) with 12 runs on 14 hits and had no errors. Jacob Morin collected the win.
Purdue lost it (16-12, 1-4 in Big Ten) with 10 runs on 14 hits and had 1 error. Jackson Dannelley took the loss.
Series win secured, they’ll look for the sweep on Sunday. Gavin DeVooght is the presumptive starter, and despite Saturday’s finish, Mosiello will tell you that you’re only as good as your next start, regardless of who goes to the mound. DeVooght is 2-1 with a 1.32 earned run average in 13.2 innings.
Sometimes…you just make do.
Game Notes
Who did the hitting?
Tyler Pettorini finished 4 for 5 with nine total bases, jumping his average back to .333.
Graveline and Joe Mershon both went 2 for 4.
Trey Lipsey finished 2 for 6, but it was his final bat that people will remember.
Relievers Chase Herrell, Zach Brown, and Jacob Morin pitched the final 4.1 innings of 2-run, 2-hit baseball. Morin (2-0) lowered his earned run average to 0.90.
Just admiring your work…second baseman Joe Mershon watches as Henry Kaczmar retired all three outs in the eighth inning.
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