Tyler Pettorini gets greeting from coach Justin Haire after hitting a bomb over the wall. (Press Pros Feature Photos By Julie McMaken Wright)
Not confidence-building, but a win. Buckeyes score 13 and give up 7 to gain their third consecutive win heading into Big Ten play Friday at Indiana.
Columbus, OH — Twenty runs, twenty-five hits, twenty walks, thirteen pitchers and $1 hot dogs.
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Just another Ohio State baseball games against Somebody…Anybody…Everybody.
Matters, though, gradually are on the uptick for the Baseball Buckeyes.
Most of the negative numbers belonged to Eastern Michigan University Tuesday afternoon in Bill Davis Stadium.
Ohio State prevailed, 13-7, stretching a modest winning streak to three games after a miserable 1-and-8 start.
Of the 20 runs, Ohio State scored 13.
Of the 25 hits, Ohio State had 16.
Of the 20 walks, Eastern Michigan issued 12.
For most of the early season, OSU first-year coach Justin Haire has nearly torn his hair out trying to get quality performances from his pitching staff.
And slowly, by increments, it is getting better.
Freshman starter Gavin Kuzniewski, pitched the first three innings, and two scoreless.
Starter Gavin Kuzniewski, a righthanded freshman, pitched the first three innings. And the first two were scoreless.
But the Buckeyes scored five runs in the bottom of the second and while Kuzniewski enjoyed watching from the dugout as the runs mounted in his favor, the long wait to get back on the mound most likely cost him.
He gave up two runs in the third — two runs and three hits for his three innings and was given the win and is 2-and-1 and a 4.32 earned run average.
And on the back end, junior lefthander Hunter Shaw pulled the curtain closed with two scoreless innings — two hits and four strikeouts.
“We’ve talked to our pitchers about stepping forward and having some courage to walk into the opportunities,” said first-year coach Justin Haire.
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“Kuzniewski is a guy who has shown us his competitiveness and he’s added a little slider to work with his fastball and curveball. And it’s been a real nice weapon for him. Those things have really started to steamroll for him and we hope he can hang on to that,” Haire added.
Hitting has been no problem for the Buckeyes, especially the top of the order, which was tip-top Tuesday.
Trey Lipsey finished with a double and three runs.
The top five in the order contributed 12 hits, 6 RBIs and 11 runs scored.
The five who can line up and take deep bows are Trey Lipsey (two hits, three runs), Lee Ellis (two hits, two RBI, two runs), Tyler Pettorini (four hits, four RBI, two runs), Matt Graveline (two hits, two RBI, two runs), Mason Eckelman (two hits, two runs).
The stand above-em-all was Pettorini. The senior infielder from Wooster drove in his four runs in the first two innings — a two-run homer in the first over the 370 sign in right-center and a two-run double in the second.
The Buckeyes were up 8-0 after two innings and the Eastern Michigan players could have quit wasting time and lined up at the concession stand for a $1 hot dog on Dollar Dog Day…or a $12 chicken sandwich.
Pettorini’s home run was his team-leading fifth and his four RBIs pushed him to a team-best 20.
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His picturesque swing is close to a mirror image of that utilized by Ken Griffey Jr., and Pettorini smiled and said, “I’ve studied his swing quite a bit. I’ve watched him a lot.”
Asked if he knew his home run was a home run when he pinged off his aluminum bat, Pettorini smiled again and said, “I did. Yeah, I did.”
Ohio States catcher Matthew Graveline beat the tag attempt to score a run for the Buckeyes.
“I took a couple of swings like that in batting practice and I knew how the ball was flying today,” he said, referring to a nice zephyr blowing toward right field. “I knew I was gonna hit it and I’m very happy with it.”
And Haire is extremely happy with his .355 average and his home run and RBI production,.
“He’s a good one, man,” said Haire. “He has been a career .300 hitter here and he has improved in so many areas.”
That means Haire is exhilarated with more than Pettorini’s bat work.
“He has improved as a defender, he has improved as a baserunner, he has improved his approach at the plate and he is as clutch as the day is long.”
Well, this one certainly was long, a 3 1/2-hour game during which the Buckeyes stopped EMU’s three-game winning streak.
Pettorini says it is not by osmosis that his all-around game is on the upswing.
“Yeah, those are two of the main things I’ve worked on the last two years,” said Pettorini about his defense and his base running. I’m striving to keep getting better on them.”
Nick Giamarusti gets called out after being called for leaning into the ball over the plate??
And the pitching that has been mostly Dog Day Afternoons that has nothing to do with $1 Hot Dog Day, but seems to be inching up, centimeter by centimeter.
“There were some bright spots from our pitchers today,” said Haire. “Kuzniewski gave us a solid three innings, Zev Salsberg got us out of a jam and Luke Carrell was good. If we continue to fine-tune our guys they all can help us down the line,”
Salsberg arrived in the fourth inning with two runs already home and two runners on and induced a weak fly ball to end the inning. Then he pitched a scoreless, hitless fifth.
Carrell pitched 1 2/3 innings and was nicked for no runs, one hit, walked two and struck out two.
The preliminaries are over, the pre-league games out of the way for the 5-9 Buckeyes. They open Big Ten Conference play this upcoming weekend with three games at Indiana.
“It’s gonna be fun, this is what we signed up for,” said Haire. “We want to jump in and be as competitive as we can. We gotta do well in the Big Ten if we want to advance to post-season play.
“So it’s back on the road this weekend, something we’re familiar with to step into that ‘second’ season,” he added. “Time to get up and see what we can figure out.”
Hunter Shaw was again steady…two scoreless innings to close the game with four strikeouts.
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