They hit some balls hard…”They just didn’t find a hole,” said Henry Kaczmar (above). (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Their tournament hopes took a spill in the Sunday finale, losing to Northwestern, 3-1. Now it remains…three critical games on the road at Rutgers, and a little help, if you please.
Columbus, OH – It wasn’t the end of the world, as we know it, but Sunday’s 3-1 loss to Northwestern in the finale of their three-game series did amount to a stumble in the Buckeyes’ quest for the Big Ten Tournament in two weeks.
And on a weekend that saw Ohio State, Maryland, and Michigan State all emerge with 10-11 conference records, the season’s final weekend amounts to a scramble for survival.
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To clarify, Maryland had a conference bye, playing out of conference against Boston College.
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Michigan State lost to surprising Minnesota, 15-12, dropping two of three to the Gophers.
And the Buckeyes, who won their series with Northwestern, dropped the finale in a game that could loom costly over the course of the final three games of the season.
Because…
Maryland finishes with three games against Penn State, in College Park.
Michigan State finished with three games against Nebraska, at East Lansing
And the Buckeyes finish with three games against Rutgers, at Rutgers.
First, the down and dirty of losing to Northwestern, a game that saw freshman Gavin DeVooght make the most significant start of his still young career with a chance to move Ohio State one game ahead of the afore-mentioned MSU and Maryland.
Freshman Gavin DeVooght pitched well (three runs on 6 hits) in the most significant start of his young career.
OSU took an early 1-0 lead in the second on a walk and back-to-back singles by Matt Graveline and Josh Stevenson.
But Northwestern, with just two conference wins for the season, wiped out that lead with two runs in the top of the third off DeVooght.
More, they added insurance in the third on a mammoth home run to right field by first baseman Trent Liolios.
And from that point the game fell on the shoulders of Northwestern starting pitcher Matt McClure, whose assortment of fastballs and breaking pitches seemed to flummox the Buckeyes’ batting order. For four innings McClure scattered four hits while striking out four and walking two. And the Wildcats’ bullpen, which had had few heraldic moments in 2024, took it from there.
The combination of Luke Benneche, Nolan Morr, and Garrett Shearer pitched the final five innings of scoreless, 3-hit baseball, striking out 4 to secure just the third conference win of the season for Northwestern.
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Northwestern won with 3 runs on 7 hits and committed no errors.
Ohio State (26-23, 10-11 in Big Ten) dropped the game with 1 run on 7 hits and committed 1 error.
In short, Northwestern’s pitching simply kept the Buckeyes’ hitters off-stride, and balls that were hit hard were hit right at people…or deep balls that the Wildcats’ defense came up big to catch.
Catcher Matt Graveline had a good day at the plate – 3 for 4 – but the Buckeyes couldn’t get the big hit with men in scoring position.
“I’ll start with the positive,” said Bill Mosiello. “We pitched really good today. Gavin gave us a really good chance with his five innings, and the bullpen was awesome.”
DeVooght’s five inning line was 3 runs on 6 hits with 6 strikeouts and a walk.
Chase Herrell came on to pitch a scoreless sixth, striking out 2.
Blaine Wynk pitched the final three innings, allowing just 1 hits while striking out 3.
“Offensively, we hit some balls hard, and when we got men in scoring position we didn’t get one big hit,” he added. “We left twelve men on base and if one of those line drives fall, or we have some better at bats…that’s what happened. We just didn’t get hits when it counted.”
Puzzling as that was, it sets up an interesting scenario for the season’s final week, with three teams tied for the final two tournament spots.
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“Today’s outcome didn’t really change anything. It could have given us some more breathing room, but next week is going to be huge, anyway. But this was a crusher and hopefully Michigan State ends up losing today, and if they do we’re even with them and Maryland. I know Nebraska and Michigan State play next week, so that’ll be a good one, and I’m not even sure who Maryland plays.”
As it turns out, any of the three teams – Ohio State, Michigan State, or Maryland – that sweeps next weekend is in the most favorable position. Win two of three and you hold your breath. Lose two of three and your season’s likely to be over.
Northwestern’s hard-hit balls seemed to find a crack. Ohio State’s didn’t. Josh Stevenson comes short of catching this Wildcat drive in the fourth.
It was opportunity lost in the sense of not having that one game cushion of 11-10 over 10-11, putting more pressure on MSU and Maryland.
“Next weekend is obviously the biggest series of the year,” said Henry Kaczmar. “We’ll play a good team at Rutgers, and honestly I thought we played well [this weekend]. A lot of our balls hit today didn’t find holes and we didn’t squeak anything across in eighth. But we played good clean baseball, and sometimes it’s just baseball. You win ’em, and you lose ’em. So going to Rutgers we’ll have a good week of practice, and then…it’s just the game.”
“I think we knew that we had to win each game this weekend to have a chance to keep going,” added Mitchell Okuley. “Unfortunately we couldn’t get the runs in when we had men in scoring position, but we’ve still got three more games. If we win all three we should be in a good spot.”
As for the three teams tied, Maryland has the advantage of playing at home against Penn State, a team that’s 9-12 and in 11th place.
Nebraska, record-wise, would be favored to win against Michigan State, but Michigan State, likewise, has the home field advantage.
Rutgers is the 12th-place team with a 5-16 record, but has the same incentive to play spoiler as Penn State does. And at this point that’s their only motivation.
“We have to stick together as a team,” added Mitchell Okuley. “Don’t try to do too much, go in playing with confidence, and don’t put too much pressure on ourselves. We have to go out and play and trust that things will work out.
“I’ve got confidence in all our starters (pitching), we’ve got some really good bullpen pieces, so if they do what they did this weekend we’ll definitely have a shot.”
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