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Baseball
Buckeyes Squander Huge Lead, but Clutch Hit by Griffin Saves the Game
By John Porentas

Ohio State hitters staked the Buckeye pitching staff to a 10-0 lead in the second inning but had to come up with yet more heroics late in the game to allow OSU to take a 15-12 win over Eastern Michigan (16-27) at Bill Davis Stadium. The hero turned out to be a highly unlikely character.

Reserve outfield Chris Griffin, son of OSU football player Duncan Griffin and nephew of two-time Heisman Trophy winner Archie Griffin, had just two at bats in his entire Buckeye career prior to the game and didn't expect to play against EMU. Regular center fielder J. B. Shuck sat out the non-league contest resting a pulled hamstring and backup Zach Hurley got the start. Griffin meanwhile did what he has done all season. He helped warm up the OSU outfield by playing a little catch with them between innings. He didn't think he would play, and never dreamed he would actually get a big hit in the game, but did just that as things worked out.

"When I came to the game today it was the last thing on my mind. I wouldn't have ever guessed," said Griffin.

"It caught me off guard (when he was inserted into the game) because I was getting ready to get my stuff to warm the left fielder up. I've been warming up the left fielder (all season), that's about it," said Griffin.

Griffin's heroics were set up by a sequence of events that was just plain weird.

Buckeye starter Josh Edgin looked positively untouchable in the early going. Edgin struck out six while walking one through two innings. Meanwhile his teammates put up one run in the first and then nine more in the second, an inning in which the Buckeyes sent 13 hitters to the plate. OSU (23-18) collected 10 hits and was aided by an error and a walk in that inning.

The long at bat did not seem to help Edgin. After striking out the side in both of the first two innings Edgin got touched up for four runs on five hits and a walk in the third. He did however strike out two more to raise his strikeout total for the game to a career-high eight.

The Buckeyes added two more runs in the bottom of the third to go up 12-4. The game still looked like a laugher and with an eight-run lead OSU Head Coach Bob Todd made two substitutions to start the fourth inning. One worked out very well, the other didn't.

Little-used outfielder Chris Griffin was brought into center field by Todd and Rory Meister relieved Edgin on the mound. Meister pitched just one inning and had more than his share of problems. He hit two batsmen, committed a balk, uncorked a wild pitch and gave up three hits, one of them a three-run homerun. By the time he finally got the third out of the inning Eastern had put five runs across the plate and the score was 12-9.

Eric Best came on in relief in the fifth and retired the first two hitters he face but then issued consecutive walks and allowed an RBI single enabling EMU to cut the lead to 12-10.

Best held EMU off the board until the 7th when he gave up a two-run homer and suddenly a game that the Buckeyes once let 10-0 was tied at 12.

OSU loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the seventh. That brought up Griffin who had walked earlier but was still looking for the first hit of his career. He got it with a solid single through the left side of the infield to drive in the winning run. The Buckeyes added one more run in the inning to take a 14-12 lead.

Chris Griffin after taking a shaving cream pie to the face from OSU team captain Dan DeLucia.

"I was just trying to make contact and move the runners over," said Griffin, who was then stopped mid-sentence in the post-game interview when OSU team-captain Dan DeLucia snuck into the players lounge where the interviews are conducted and continued a long-standing tradition on the OSU baseball team. DeLucia quietly got behind Griffin and smeared a shaving cream pie into his face drawing howls of laughter from his teammates and amazed reporters. It's what happens when a player makes his first big play as a Buckeye, and it's considered a badge of honor among the players. Griffin at first looked shocked, then broke out into a beaming smile. Once the laughing stopped and he regained his composure the the post-game interview continued ...after he had wiped off about 80 percent of the shaving cream.

"It's amazing," said Griffin of the experience of getting his first hit to help win a game. "I was just looking for an opportunity to help the team out. Just coming off the bench and helping the team out and being a spark. That's definitely something I want to do."

OSU Head Coach Bob Todd was thrilled with Griffin's performance both at the plate and in the field where he showed speed and great fluidity defensively.

"Chris Griffin was put into a tough situation," said Todd. "He got his first college hit and that base hit really put the momentum in our dugout. After they had tied the score, that's a big, big base hit. He played very well defensively, went and got the ball, took good angles," said Todd.

Todd was happy with his hitters and with Griffin, but predictably unhappy with his pitching staff.

"You would think that 10 or 11 runs would be enough to win a ball game," Todd said.

"The thing that probably frustrated me more than anything else is the fact that we've given up way-too many free passes. We had six walks and probably two hit batters," he added.

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