Baseball
Buckeyes Drop Three to Purdue in Costly Series Loss
By John PorentasIt was a costly weekend for the homestanding Buckeyes as OSU lost three of four to Purdue at Bill Davis Stadium.
Purdue took the series opener Friday night then came back to shut out the Buckeyes 8-0 in the first game of the scheduled doubleheader on Saturday to take a 2-0 series lead.
The second game of the Saturday doubleheader was postponed until Sunday due to weather considerations. On Sunday the two teams met in a seven-inning game to complete the regularly-scheduled doubleheader and then played the regularly-scheduled nine inning game.
The Buckeyes got very solid pitching from freshman Dean Wolosiansky and timely hitting to claim game three of the series by a final of 8-4, but the Boilermakers came back to break the Buckeyes' hearts in the series finale. OSU carried a 5-1 lead into the eighth inning but the OSU bullpen allowed three runs in the eighth and three more in the ninth on a three-run homerun by Boilermaker first baseman Ryne White. That gave Purdue a 7-5 come from behind win and a 3-1 series win.
It was the first time in 22 years that the Buckeyes had lost a series to Purdue.
The series result is particularly damaging to the Buckeyes. The weekend began with Purdue in second place in the Big Ten standings with a league record of 9-3 and OSU in third at 7-4 in the conference. First-place Michigan has just one loss in league play this year and barring a complete collapse will win the regular-season championship.
A second-place finish in the conference standings is extremely important since the top-two teams in the regular-season standings get a first-round bye in the Big Ten tournament. To earn that bye, the Buckeyes needed to pick up ground on the Boilermakers this weekend by taking at least thee of four but fell even further behind Purdue when they failed to even earn a split.
Both the Buckeyes and Boilermakers have 16 games remaining on their Big Ten regular-season schedules, but due to a quirk in the Big Ten schedule the Boilermakers will not meet Michigan. The Buckeyes, meanwhile, will travel to Ann Arbor to meet the Wolverines the weekend in of May 2. Three of OSU's last four four-game series are on the road. Purdue meanwhile will finish with eight road games and eight home games.
Game Two - Purdue 8, OSU 0
Purdue starter Matt Janzen went all the way for a seven-inning complete-game shutout of Ohio State on a wet Saturday in Columbus. Janzen scattered six Buckeye hits, struck out three and didn't walk anybody in picking up his third win of the season against one loss.
The Boilermakers got all the scoring they would need in the third inning off OSU starter Dan DeLucia. After one run was in the Boilers loaded the bases with two outs. Purdue third baseman Dan Black then delivered a grand slam homerun to put the Boilers up 5-0.
It was all Janzen would need. The Buckeyes could not break through against him despite have three innings in which they had two hits. The Boilers added two runs in the fifth when Black once again homered off DeLucia for his second homerun and fifth and sixth RBI of the game. Purdue added one more in the sixth off reliever Jared Strayer on two hits and an error.
Game Three - OSU 8, Purdue 4
OSU redshirt freshman pitcher Dean Wolosiansky went five and one third innings and junior first baseman Justin Miller drove in three runs to pace the Buckeyes to a win over Purdue on a sunny Sunday.
The Buckeyes jumped on Purdue starter Allan Donato for three runs in the first inning and one more in the second before he was relieved by Kyle Cook. OSU's first inning rally came on the strength of four singles and two run-scoring sacrifice flies. OSU's run in the second inning also came as a result of a sacrifice fly this time after two OSU singles.
Purdue got an unearned run in the third when the leadoff hitter reached on an error. The Boilers seemed poised to have a big inning when they loaded the bases with two outs after one run was in, but Wolosiansky was able to retire the heavy-hitting Black for the third out of the inning. Black had victimized OSU pitcher Dan DeLucia the day before with a grand slam homer and a two-run homer, but Wolosiansky was able to handle him at the critical point of the game.
The Buckeyes were able to answer Purdue's score with a single run in the bottom of the third, this one like the other OSU runs in the game coming on a sacrifice fly after a walk and a single put runners at first and third.
With the score 5-1 the Boilers rallied for three runs in the top of the sixth to cut the OSU lead to 5-4 and in the process get Wolsiansky out of the game. Three-consecutive singles combined with an outfield error and a ground out produced two runs. That brought on OSU reliever Eric Best who gave up a single to the first hitter he faced to allow another run. Best then retired the side.
The Buckeyes answered again with three runs of their own in the bottom of the sixth. OSU put together four singles, the most damaging one a two-RBI hit by Miller. OSU was also aided by a Purdue error in the inning.
Game Four - Purdue 7, OSU 5
The Buckeye relief corps gave up three runs in the eighth and three more in the ninth to allow Purdue to come from behind and take game four of the four-game series.
OSU starter J. B. Shuck was outstanding in seven innings of work, allowing just one run on four hits. Shuck also struck out seven.
Shuck limited Purdue to just two hits through the first six innings but struggled some in the seventh when the Boilers' first two hitters singled to start the inning. Shuck was able to retire the side without allowing a run, but OSU Head Coach Bob Todd decided to go to his bullpen in the eighth inning, and the bullpen let him down.
Reliever Eric Best, who has been extremely reliable of late, walked the first hitter he faced, then gave up a single, a double, and hit a batsman. That put two runs across and left runners at first and second with none out.
"The disappointing thing is that Eric Best has done a very good job over the last two or three weeks closing. Today he couldn't get it done. He couldn't get an out in that eighth inning and that really created a problem," said OSU Head Coach Bob Todd.
Todd went to the bullpen again, this time to freshman Alex Wimmers. Wimmers was able to get the Buckeyes out of the inning with just one more run coming across to allow OSU to take a 5-4 lead into the ninth.
Wimmers, who walked in the winning run in the series finale last weekend against Michigan State, was unable to hold off Purdue in the ninth inning. The Boilers put two runners aboard with one out on a single and a catcher's interference call. First baseman Ryne White then took a Wimmers fastball deep with a line drive homerun that just cleared the right field wall and put Purdue up 7-5.
"We were talking about what pitch to throw to him," said Todd. "We looked at it and we felt like he was laying on the off-speed pitch. We thought that maybe first pitch we could get ahead, throw a strike, trying to keep it away so he couldn't pull it. Our location wasn't where we wanted it," said Todd.
Wimmers got the next two batters to get out of the inning, but the damage was done.
"It was the sixth or eight game this year where we had the lead going into the eighth and have blown the lead," said Todd.
"When you take a look at the players we've been bringing in in relief it's been the freshmen. We don't want to put a freshman in that situation but Alex has what we think is good enough stuff. We're trying to work on the mental makeup so he can handle that."
Purdue ace reliever Josh Lindblom retired the Buckeyes one-two-three in the bottom of the ninth to end the game.
OSU had led the entire game before White's dramatic homer. The Buckeyes put across a run in the first, two in the second and one in the third to take a 4-0 lead. Purdue got to Shuck for a single run in the fourth. OSU's final run came courtesy of a solo homerun by second baseman Cory Kovanda in the seventh inning off Lindblom. It was Kovanda's first homerun of the season.
Big Ten Overall Team W L T Pct. W L T Pct. Michigan Purdue Illinois Ohio State Northwestern Penn State Minnesota
Iowa Michigan State
Indiana
Remaining OSU Big Ten Schedule:
April 25-27 at Northwestern four-game series
May 2-4 at Michigan four-game series
May 9-11 Illinois four-game series
May 15-17 at Iowa four-game series
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