Buckeye junior Chris Domke scattered three hits in a complete-game 8-1 win in the finale of the Michigan series in Anna Arbor. (Press Pros File Photos)
Behind a sterling complete-game performance by starting pitcher Chris Domke, the Buckeyes completed their domination of rival Michigan with a three-game weekend sweep, advancing their Big Ten Tournament seed, and going to Omaha Tuesday with as much momentum as any of the twelve participants.
There can be no better way to complete your season than a three-game sweep of your rival – of Michigan – and do it in such humbling fashion.
13-2…7-3…and 8-1!
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But that’s how the Ohio State Buckeyes baseball team completed their atonement of a 13-37 season just twelve months ago with an 8-1 domination of the Michigan Wolverines on Saturday afternoon in Ann Arbor.
And if Friday’s 7-3 win marked the first series in Ann Arbor since 1999, consider that Saturday’s 8-1 finale marked the first series sweep of Michigan, in Michigan, since 1994!
“It was something we had to live with since last year in Columbus,” said coach Justin Haire on post-game radio Saturday. “It left a bad taste in my mouth, and it was the first thing we talked about when we got together on day one of fall practice.”
How important was this year’s Michigan series?
Well, consider that Michigan beat the Buckeyes 23-1 in game one or the 2025 series in Columbus, scoring 16 runs in the fourth inning of that game, alone. Rivalry or no, there’s no living with an outcome like that, especially when the Wolverines let it be known at the time, and with certainty, that perhaps they enjoyed it a bit too much.
Fast forward a year, and a year with a different momentum, when on Saturday the Buckeyes took care of matters in the first inning of the sweep game, scoring four times thanks to a two-out base-loaded double by Lee Ellis that emptied the bases, staked starter Chris Domke to a four-run lead, and must have reminded the Wolverines that misery comes in many shapes and sizes. Domke would go on to pitch a three-hit complete game victory…8-1…his sixth win of the season, and his first complete game as a Buckeye.
Lee Ellis’ bases-loaded double in the first proved to be the winning blow, sweeping Michigan in Ann Arbor for the first time since 1994.
Domke, for the sake of alliteration, was dominant, allowing just a single run on three hits, striking out 6 and walking 1. The lone Michigan run came in the fourth inning on a solo homer by Brayden Jefferis, his second home run in as many days. The transfer from Youngstown State, made it look easy.
“I just threw the fastball, mostly,” said Domke, who improve his season record to 6-6. “I just tried to fill up the zone, and really didn’t mix in the breaking ball that much.”
He didn’t need to. Confidence in the fastball, and location, were his chief weapon, propelling him to his first nine-inning complete game as a Buckeye and the best single-game performance of his college career – the first Buckeye pitcher to do it in five years.
The Buckeyes came back to score an insurance run in the seventh on a leadoff walk to Noah Furcht followed by an RBI double by Maddix Simpson.
And they left little doubt as to the outcome in the ninth when they feasted off a collapsed Michigan defense that committed four errors to add three more runs. leaving little doubt over the eventual outcome and Domke’s complete game.
Ohio State won it with 8 runs on 6 hits and left 13 men on base. The played error-free baseball.
Michigan lost it with 1 run on 3 hits while committing four errors.
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The sweep improved Ohio State’s seeding to sixth in this week’s Big Ten Tournament, trading places with Michigan who fell to seventh. The Buckeyes would play either Washington or Rutgers, depending on the how those two teams finished their own seasons on Saturday.
But what has to be said, or written, is tribute to the baseball Buckeyes who shocked the conference in 2026 by overachieving in the manner that no other Ohio State men’s team – football, basketball, soccer, hockey, et. al. – did in 2026, improving 16 games over last year’s record (13-37) and finishing with a mark of 29-23, and 18-12 in the conference, compared to 5-25 a year ago.
The football bluebloods will argue for the sake of relevancy, of course. But let there be no mistake. If football had finished last in the Big Ten a year ago heaven and earth would have switched places. Justin Haire and his staff, simply made the roster adjustments necessary to compete, with a focus on recruiting players who took pride in competing as a Buckeye.
Sophomore pitcher Gavin Kuzniewski made the step necessary to become a trusted weekend starter.
Chris Domke and Pierce Herrenbruck came in as transfers to prove that they were capable of a more competitive opportunity than their previous resumes’.
Dane Harvey, Noah Furcht, and Alex Bemis, likewise, came to Lane and High committed to playing their best baseball against the odds…and those who questioned.
Publisher Sonny Fulks writes OHSAA and Ohio State sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.
To repeat, no other Ohio State men’s sport has featured such a dramatic turnaround, change of fortune, and change of respect, conference-wide, as that of baseball. And no other Buckeye coach should be recognized for as much as Justin Haire, about whom more than one must have questioned after his ascent from tiny Campbell University (Coastal Athletic Conference) to the Big Ten, with Michigan, UCLA, Oregon, Nebraska, and USC.
And to repeat the fact about relevancy, let any Ohio State baseball player make it big in the Major Leagues and come back to campus with a seven-figure check to show his appreciation…and see how fast administration cashes that check. No different than football or basketball. It is what it is, until it’s time to report the facts. And you will read the following statement in no place other than Press Pros.
No one has done more, or come farther, in 2026 than the baseball Buckeyes.
“So let it be written, so let it be done,” said actor Yul Brenner, portraying Egyptian King Ramesses II in the movie, The Ten Commandments.
Brenner, one of Hollywood’s biggest stars in his day, was known to be a Red Sox fan.
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