Tyler Pettorini makes a first-inning three-run home run trot. (Press Pros Feature Photos By Julie McMaken Wright)
Ohio State scores 11 runs in the first two innings, but has to hold off Wright State after the Raiders barged back to tie it. forcing the Buckeyes to score an unearned run in the eighth inning to score a 14-13 non-league victory.
Columbus, OH. — It was Dollar Hot Dog Night Tuesday in Ohio State’s Bill Davis Stadium and the star of the night was Landon Hollopeter — and he played for neither Ohio State nor Wright State.
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By eating seven hot dogs in a pre-game contest, he earned the right to throw the ceremonial first pitch, a high-and-outside strike.
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And perhaps he should have kept pitching for both teams because it was not a night to toe the rubber.
The score sounded as if Woody Hayes coached Ohio State rather than Bill Mosiello, a 14-13 Buckeyes win over Wright State.
They sold 3,113 hot dogs and ran out by the sixth inning, as well as running out of ice for soft drinks. Mosiello and Wright State coach Alex Sogard didn’t run out of pitchers, but they both wore paths from their dugouts to the mound either making changes or threatening to do so.
“It wasn’t the way you write it up, but we’ll take it,” said Mosiello. “It was ugly, yeah, it was not pretty, but we’ll take it and we’re finally finding ways to win games.”
How did they find a way? They scored six in the first, five in the second and led 11-4 and 13-6, only to have Wright State scramble back and tie it, 13-13.
The Buckeyes (18-15) won it in the eighth inning without a hit, the winning runs scoring on a sacrifice fly.
Trey Lipsey gets the steal and went 3 for 5 with two RBIs.
At one point, the public address system played Elvis Presley’s ‘A Little Less Conversation’ and the crowd of 2,984 roared its approval.
Ohio State used seven pitchers and Wright State used five as both teams continued a season-long trend of clubbing the opposition to death while getting clubbed to death themselves.
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While scoring 27 runs, the teams combined for 31 hits — 16 by the Buckeyes and 15 by the Raiders. And WSU struck three homers to one for the Buckeyes.
“Give them credit, they have a good ball club offensively. . .and what a tough one,” said Mosiello.
For Wright State (20-16), it has been a year of redwood hitting and plywood pitching.
Joseph Mershon turns a double play to snuff early WSU rally.
“The talent is there (pitching), it is just a matter of being comfortable,” said WSU’s Sogard. “We dug a hole early, then offensively did a good job of getting on the board, then dug another hole. . .and we’ve done that, unfortunately. quite a few times.
“Our offense knows to keep playing and I tell them, ‘Just keep playing, just keep playing,’” Sogard added. And that’s what the Raiders did and nearly pulled it off.
The game began as if it would last until dawn’s early light. Wright State scored four runs in the first inning against OSU starter Chase Herrell with Boston Smith blasting a three-run homer.
Then Ohio State came to bat and plated six runs in the bottom of the inning, an inning that lasted 45 minutes. OSU’s Tyler Pettorini matched Smith’s three-run homer with a three-run rip of his own.
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But the Buckeyes also got a two-run double by Nick Giamarusti for the 6-4 lead.
So given the two-run lead, what does Herrell do? He walked the first batter in the top of the second. . .and that was it for Herrell.
Ohio State then added five runs in the bottom of the second for an 11-4 lead and WSU began pecking away until it was 13-12 entering the eighth.
Isaac Cadena calls off Henry Kaczmar to snag a fly ball in left field.
The comeback was completed when Wright State’s Jay Luikart dispatched his second homer of the game leading off the eighth — his 15th and 16th homers. He was 4 for 4 with four RBI and three runs scored.
All the offense wasn’t an unusual uprising. Ohio State had five plus-.300 hitters in the lineup and two hitting .296.
Big deal. Wright State had five .300 hitter, two .400 hitters and Nate Manley, batting .511 and hitting eighth. And he was the last guy in the game to get a hit. All 17 other players owned at least one hit before Manley doubled home two runs in the seventh to slice OSU’s lead to 13-12.
Then Luikart’s home run tied it to set up OSU’s winning run. . .and if you can believe it, it came without a hit in the bottom of the eighth.
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It began with a walk to Henry Kaczmar. Wright State catcher Manley tried to pick him off first and threw the ball high, wide and ugly into right field. Kaczmar motored all the way to third, from where he scored the go-ahead run on Matthew Graveline’s sacrifice fly.
“The idea is to play nine innings and we’re disappointed they were able to score so many runs, but that’s baseball,” said Mosiello. “We’re trying to create a culture where we find ways to win any way we can and I’ll definitely take that.”
Henry Kaczmar can’t reach pitcher Justin Eckhardt’s wild ninth-inning throw for an error..
So will Kaczmar after getting on via the walk, taking third on the wild throw and scoring on Graveline’s sacrifice fly to right.
“Our offense did well, we stuck together, a dogfight all the way through,” said Kaczmar. “Do I like these kinds of game. Yeah, I do. These dog fights are fun. You always have that adrenaline going throughout the game.”
So was it over at 14-13. Yes but almost not.
OSU closer Justin Eckhardt had one out after making a big-time play on a bunt and a runner on first. He fielded a too-hard bunt, a potential game-ending double play. But the throw was low, wide and ugly to second and everybody was safe.
Nick Giamarusti successfully steals second base.
He recorded a strikeout but wisely walked two-homer Luikart, but that filled the bases. It ended when Ben Vore popped out.
“That comebacker (Eckhardt threw away) was not his normal deal,” said Mosiello. “He hasn’t had the ball for a while, didn’t get it all weekend (three games against Iowa).
“He hadn’t pitched for a week and I hoped we were up by 20 when he came in,” he added. “But he’s our captain and he kept his poise, he is awesome, and no situation is too big for him.”
Said Eckhardt, “I was questioning myself. I made the play on the bunt like nothing, then the routine one (the comebacker) I got kind of distracted, got a bad grip on the ball and sped things up a little bit. . .I probably should have pocketed it and just threw it to first.”
But he remained cool, calm and non-plussed and finished the assignment for his sixth save.
Justin Eckhardt and Matthew Graveline celebrate after Eckhardt records a save.
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