OSU starter Gavin Bruni turns his back on Michigan State leadoff hitter Jack Frank, who hit the game’s first pitch for a home run. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Sonny Fulks and Julie Wright)
For the second day in a row the Buckeye failed to pitched and paid a price. Michigan State hung 17 runs and 16 hits on them in a 17-12 series-winning effort.
Columbus, OH – Despite excited kids searching for autographs from players, and asking for photos afterwards, the aftermath of Ohio State’s 17-12 loss to Michigan State was pretty glum.
As it should be.
Publisher/editor Sonny Fulks writes the Big Ten and Buckeyes baseball for Press Pros Magazine.com.
You can’t pitch worse for a second day in a row than did the Buckeyes, a reprise of Friday night’s meltdown, and paraphrasing the coach afterwards…when you pitch that poorly this is what happens. We got what we deserved.
17 runs on 16 hits…8 walks…five Michigan State home runs…a pu-pu platter of what not to do from five Ohio State pitchers in the 39th game of the season, and the 14th game against Big Ten competition.
Starter Gavin Bruni…3.0 innings pitches, 7 runs on 6 hits, 4 walks and 80 pitches to do it.
Reliever Logan Jones….0.2 of an inning, 4 runs on 3 hits in 20 pitches.
Jaylen Jones…1.1 innings, 1 run on 2 hits, a walk and a strikeout in 29 pitches.
Jacob Morin…Mr. Reliable throughout those first 39 games, 2.0 innings, 5 runs on four hits, 20 walks, in 49 pitches.
And Noah Williamson…2.0 innings pitched, 0 runs on 1 hit, 2 strikeouts and 20 pitches.
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The issue? Mistakes in the strike zone, fastballs right down the middle to a team that feasts on fastballs in hitters’ counts. Trouble is, Ohio State’s pitchers were throwing pitches right down the middle in pitchers’ counts, as well. Sometimes, on the very first pitch.
In fact, that’s how the game began. MSU’s Jack Frank, who torched them just 18 hours before, hit the game’s first pitch from Gavin Bruni for a solo home run to left and aided considerably by winds gusting to as much as 20 miles per hour.
Offensive highlight…Trey Lipsey chases a teammate home ahead of him with his home run in the fifth.
In the second Bruni gave up a pair of walks to start the inning before MSU’s Dillon Kark got him again, a three-run shot this time to go up 4-0.
Ohio State would close the margin in the second with a base hit, a hit batsman, and a two-out home run by Hunter Rosson off MSU’s Nick Powers…4-3.
But MSU would briefly tie it in the third with a leadoff homer by Greg Ziegler. And so it began.
The Buckeyes came back to score 5 in the bottom of the third, highlighted by four consecutive hits, and five for the inning, to take what looked to be a settling 8-5 lead.
But Bruni could not get out of the fourth, gave up the ball to Logan Jones, and from there the Spartans would score 6 in the fourth, 1 in the fifth, and 4 more in the sixth to run out to their eventual seventeen runs on 15 hits.
Ohio State would add four runs in the bottom of the fifth on a home run by Trey Lipsey (following a single, double and walk) to reach their 12 run total. And that was it.
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Transfer Noah Williamson finally came on in the eighth, kept the ball down in the strike zone, and delivered the most impressive mound work of the day, surrendering just one hit.
MSU won it with 17 runs on 16 hits and committed 2 errors.
OSU lost it with 12 run on 13 hits and likewise committed 2 errors.
Rosson’s big day…Hunter Rosson gets the coach’s greeting after his home run in the third inning.
On a beautiful day at the ball park – 78 degrees and sunshine – and a very nice crowd of 1,500, you could have cut the gloom (as they played Carmen Ohio) with a knife. Time and change has not been good to the Buckeyes over the past ten days – a series loss at Michigan and in danger of a series sweep on Sunday against Michigan State.
“We gave up 16 earned runs,” said Bill Mosiello. “So it’s not hard to figure that out. We didn’t pitch very well, had innings where we got two outs, then walked two guys, and then…boom. It was an atrocious job of pitching and they made us pay. It was a bad a job on the mound as it could possibly be.”
But not to be overshadowed is the notable contribution of Aledo, Texas native, Hunter Rosson at the plate. The Buckeyes first baseman/handyman kept giving them life throughout the game with three hits in four at bats, a hit shy of the cycle, and 6 RBIs for the game.
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“It was such a good offensive day, I just wanted to do what I could to help us get in front. The guys ahead of me were doing a great job of getting on base,” said Rosson.
“And their pitchers had some of the same issues,” he added. “It wasn’t just me who had a good day, a lot of guys had good days. I’d say that both teams had their moments. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.”
You can make a lot out of 28 runs over the course of the first two games. It’s baseball, sure, and Mosiello reminds people of that often when he says that it’s the dumbest, stupidest game in the world for its irregularities. But it’s also the most fulfilling when you play it right.
“It’s super simple,” said Mo, post-game. “You have to pitch. And everyone knows the ball is traveling today, so it’s the walks that matter. You get two outs and you walk two guys. Or you get behind 3-0 with two guys on and they get the hit to score them. The game will never change and we got exactly what we deserved today.”
Tomorrow now becomes important for the fact of another super simple prospect…that of not getting swept. Gavin DeVooght will get the start, his fifth of the season, trying to build on a fabulous 5-inning effort last weekend against Michigan.
Hunter Rosson is greeted at home plate by teammates after his second inning home run.
“We’re trying,” added Mosiello. “If we get out of an inning without giving up a run we should be throwing a party. We talk about these things before the game…the wind is blowing, there’s going to be some cheap outs, some cheap home runs. That’s OK if there’s no one on base. But you have to make quality pitches and focus on damage control.”
Damage control…win the finale on Sunday…something on which to build…restore some confidence because the coming week is going to be another challenge. Illinois is 11-3 in the league, and 25-14, overall.
And the wind always blows in Champaign.
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