‘Cheese’ was fantastic…Starter Landon Beidelschies gave the Buckeyes the lift they needed with 7 innings of 1 run, 7 hit baseball. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Julie McMaken Wright)
It was tight and tense for six innings, but Ohio State used four runs in the seventh and two more in the eighth to put Northwestern away in game one of their final home series.
Columbus, OH – A parent, or a fan, was heard to say following Ohio State’s 7-2 Friday night win over Northwestern: “Well, that’s the first step.”
And of course no explanation was necessary because they need a few more steps, and winning pitcher Landon Beideschies would add his own interpretation, post-game. “We need to win as many games as we can.”
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And indeed the Buckeyes do need to win as many as they can – or all of the remaining six – and hope for help if they want to qualify for that eighth seed in the upcoming Big Ten Tournament. Beidelschies put his money behind those words with a sparkling seven-inning 1-run-on-7-hit performance in which he pitched his best baseball of the 2024 season.
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“He really pitched tonight,” said Bill Mosiello. “He didn’t just chuck it, he pitched. He was fantastic.
“And he gave up just that one run. Offensively we were a little sluggish, but Landon’s effort tonight was fantastic.”
A good crowd and a legion of Little Leaguers (1,365) showed up to watch as Ohio State won its 25th game of the season, but more importantly drew within a game of .500 in the Big Ten standings on a night when one of those two teams ahead of them, Michigan State, came from behind to beat Minnesota, 6-4. So they didn’t gain any ground there, while Maryland, currently in the eighth spot, gets the conference bye this weekend. The Terps are playing Boston College. So all indicators pointed towards a schedule advantage for Ohio State against 2-win Northwestern (2-17 in Big Ten), but the Wildcats and starting pitcher Jack Dyke were having none of that.
Some defense…first baseman Hunter Rosson hauled in this foul pop for an out in the first inning.
Dyke gave up a second inning run when Tyler Pettorini and Mitch Okuley opening with back-to-back singles, with Pettorini eventually scoring on a one-out fielder’s choice. Ohio State took an early 1-0 lead.
Dyke turned stingy from that point on, pitching the next 5.1 innings and giving up just two hits, until he was charged with three runs in the Buckeyes’ 4-run seventh inning.
But Landon Beidelschies (5-7) pitched his most efficient game of the season, scattering 7 hits while giving up a single run over seven innings, striking out five and walking one.
“It definitely felt good to do that,” said Beidelschies. “The team definitely needed this one because if you look at the standings we have our backs against the wall. We need to do well these next two series. Winning tonight was a good start and it’s always good when you can pitch seven innings and give up one run.”
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He had struggled with pitch count in recent starts, struggling to get to, and beyond, the fifth inning. But Friday Beidelschies looked calm and business-like, in command of himself and the moment while spotting his fastball and punishing Northwestern hitters with that devastating slider he throws. The best thing…while he gave up seven hits, only twice did he give up as many as two in the same inning, including the sixth when Northwestern scored on a double by Bennett Markinson and an RBI single by Trent Liolios. He never allowed the ‘Cats to string together the kind of inning that Ohio State enjoyed in the seventh.
Matt Graveline’s triple in the seventh drove in two to give the Buckeyes the lead.
Tied 1-1, Pettorini and Okuley again opened the seventh inning with back-to-back singles. And after a Joe Mershon fly ball to left, and a Trey Lipsey strikeout, Matt Graveline stepped to the plate looking for an antidote to his recently diminishing batting average. He picked on a Dyke fastball and hit a rocket to the gap in right center, a triple, scoring both Pettorini and Okuley to take a 3-1 lead.
“That felt good,” said Graveline. “I was looking for the fastball, put a really good swing on it, and I’m just happy that I could get the bat head on it and do what I could.” Graveline, hitting the eighth spot in the lineup, went 1 for 4, but that one hit broke the spell of Jack Dyke.
“He had a really good breaking ball,” said Graveline. “We knew it would be slow, but I think it was slower when he got out there. He throws the fastball about 88 miles per hour and there’s just that much difference between the fastball and the curve.’
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Josh Stevenson then singled home Graveline with the fourth run of the inning, and the Buckeyes went to the eighth with a different spring in their step, leading 5-1.
Beidelschies’ night was finished after seven, allowing Mosiello to go to the bullpen for dependable Blaine Wynk to cover the final two innings.
Wynk walked the leadoff hitter in the eighth, and a pair of singles thereafter plated a Northwestern run to cut the deficit to 5-2.
But in the bottom of the eight OSU again proved that hitting is contagious. With two outs Okuley was hit in the foot by a pitch. Mershon singled to put runners on first and third, and Trey Lipsey followed with a double to the alley in right, scoring both Okuley and Mershon…7-2, Ohio State.
Wynk responded in the top of the ninth, striking out the first two hitters, and inducing a weak ground ball for the final out of the game.
The Buckeyes won it (25-22, 9-10 in Big Ten) with 7 runs on 9 hits and had no errors. Beidelschies won his fifth, against seven losses.
Northwestern dropped its 31st game of the season (15-31, 2-17 in Big Ten) with 2 runs on 9 hits and had no errors.
How good was Beidelschies…how efficient?
Blaine Wynk struck out four of the six outs he recorded to preserve the 7-2 Friday win.
The game took just 2 hours and 9 minutes, the time for an average 7-inning game. And he needed just 104 pitches, by far his best pitch efficiency in a month.
“It was his best since Arizona State and Cal, and if you call someone dominant it means that they pitched really good,” added Mosiello. “As of late, he was awesome. He had a lot of traffic, but he made good pitches. And it was really tailor-made because they started six lefthanders against him. If he can’t get the six lefthanders out we’re really in trouble, and they had some tougher at bats than I was hoping they’d have off him. But ‘Cheese’ did a great job and he gave us all that he had.”
It was just the first step of what could either be a reprise of the final two weeks of 2023…or an agonizing close, but not close enough if they stumble between now and the end of the Rutgers series next weekend. But first…game two on Saturday.
“I’m gonna’ sleep a lot better tonight,” Mosiello smiled. “But first I’ve got to worry about tomorrow and Purcell going for us. Hopefully we can get it done with Purcell and Herrell, and Wynk getting a day’s rest.
“But yeah, it’s going to be a lot better tonight.”
Of course…one night at a time!
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