Sophomore Jake Michalak lets fly Sunday with his best performance, when it was needed the most in an 8-3 series clinching win over Valparaiso. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Sophomore Jake Michalak delivered the season’s best starting performance and the offense did what it’s been doing…an 8-3 series win over Valparaiso in the weekend finale.
Columbus, OH – It was how baseball is supposed to be played.
The season’s best (so far) starting performance by sophomore Jake Michalak – six innings pitched, 1 run on 5 hits, 10 strikeouts and 2 walks. Dominating!
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And the kind of run support you’ve come to expect – 8 runs on 13 hits, no errors and long balls by Matt Graveline and Tyler Pettorini, the kind of offense that kept the crowd of 689 interested, and curious for more when Eastern Michigan comes to Bill Davis on Tuesday.
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Ohio State (4-9), scored 2 in the second, 1 in the third, and put the game out of reach, effectively, with 3 in the seventh, highlighted by Tyler Pettorini’s fourth (home run) and Matt Graveline’s third. They would add two more in the eighth off Valparaiso’s beleaguered bullpen to salt away their fourth win of the season against the nine losses.
Which for at least this day, looked redeemable given the performance the starting pitching and another confidence-building bullpen performance by redshirt freshman Nik Copenhaver in the seventh inning.
But above and beyond all that…the anticipated settling in by Jake Michalak, who after three struggling starts, found whatever he’d been missing in 4.1 innings of work, previously.
He threw strikes. He threw hard, registering 96 on the scoreboard radar with his best bolt. He commanded the strike zone after a tentative first two innings. And more importantly, when he settled in to his work in the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth innings, he recorded nine of his ten strikeouts over his last twelve outs, giving up just one run (in the fourth) on three hits.
The Buckeyes got contributions from up and down the lineup…an RBI single from freshman Maddix Simpson (above) in the second inning.
“It felt good for me,” he said, post-game. “It’s been a rough year for me to date, and it just feels good for me to get a big one off my shoulders. Now I want to take this confidence forward into Big Ten play.”
This was the Jake Michalak anticipated when he was recruited out of North Royalton High School, what one scout then described as one of the best raw, underdeveloped talents in Ohio high school baseball.
This was the Michalak that frustrated the previous regime, for his inability in small samples to fulfill expectation, frustrating, in fact, for regime and Michalak alike. The arm, the ability was there…just a matter of how to resource it. Sunday, it looked like ‘muscle memory’ had taken over…settled in.
“I think from last year, and this year, I’ve learned something about how to pitch with runners on base,” he added. “Today I just kinda’ settled in. We’ve been talking about finishing innings, and today I had the mindset of just finishing as many innings as possible. I was getting some calls, and it just felt good.”
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Sophomore catcher Mason Eckelman, who himself is finding his mojo with playing time and expectation, was the partnership to Michalak’s six innings, and described his turnaround as “awesome”.
“He had his confidence back,” said Eckelman, a former Johnny Bench Award winner as the state’s best high school catcher at Walsh Jesuit in 2023.
Freshman reliever Nik Copenhaver celebrates his three-pitch strikeout in the top of the seventh to quell a Valparaiso bases-loaded rally.
“His stuff was working well and he put me in a good spot to able to help him. Credit to him…his preparation, his work, everything he’s done to get to today. He’s made some crazy strides and it’s awesome to see it and for me to be able to help him out there. Today he made the next step and some of us sophomores have talked about that…how to contribute to make a difference in this team. And what he did today was awesome, building confidence as we head to Big Ten play.”
One cannot overlook some recurring offensive consistency.
Trey Lipsey went 3 for 5…Lee Ellis had 2 hits in three official at bats, and scored a pair of runs…Tyler Pettorini, of course, went 2 for 5 with a home run and 3 RBIs…Matt Graveline was 1 for 2 with a home run and an 2 RBIs…Eckelman, himself, went 2 for 3, raising his average to .265. As we’ve written, exhaustively, this team will hit and find a way to score runs. And role players, like 5-year-senior Will Carpenter, played first base again and had another extra base hit, a run scored, and an RBI.
Not to get ahead of one’s skis, but when you get reliable starting pitching baseball becomes so much better, and predictable.
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“Jake was really good today,” Justin Haire reiterated with a broad smile, for a day, at least, his blood pressure at a manageable level and his concern at least balanced. “And he’s been trending in the right direction.
“His line scores aren’t indicative of the work that he’s put in. He ground through Alabama for 3.2 innings, and we got him out early last week against Oregon State…but I thought his stuff was actually good. He’s just continuing to work and smooth out some of the delivery things. And we saw some benefits of that work today. He’s a young man that shows up and wants to get better. He puts the team first and it’s been awesome to see his growth and progression. We’re just scratching the surface of what that guy is capable of doing.”
Tyler Pettorini’s fourth home run of the season in the seventh proved to be major insurance in the Buckeyes’ 8-3 win.
But can they build on a couple of good days? Can a strong start from a pair of sophomores on back-to-back days suddenly spell the kind of consistency that’s not just necessary, but foundational with the start of Big Ten play next weekend in Bloomington?
And it’s notable, too, that in the seventh inning, with the bases loaded, reliever Nik Copenhaver, who’s building a case for himself with each successive appearance, came on to spell Sahil Patel with two outs in a situational matchup against a righthanded hitter…and struck him out on three consecutive pitches. Another manifestation of how baseball is meant to be played, and a harbinger, perhaps, of more better things to come. Or one would hope.
For that fact there’s one more dress rehearsal, Tuesday, when Eastern Michigan comes to town for a 6 pm start. It’s non-conference, yes, and a developmental opportunity for more young pitchers and position players.
But in another sense, it’s one more opportunity to improve both record and confidence. 5 and 9 sounds, and feels, so much better than 4 and 10 before you play Indiana.
And given their start, this team needs every bit of advantage it can earn.
Nick Giamarusti beats the throw on this steal attempt of second base in the third inning.
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