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Baseball
Hoosiers Trample Buckeyes to Send OSU to Loser's Bracket
By John Porentas

Ohio State has followed a pretty simple script in winning the Big Ten regular-season championship this year. They counted on ace Alex Wimmers to win them one tight game against the opposition's best pitcher, then counted on clutch hitting, dependable defense and strong bullpen work from Drew Rucinski and Jake Hale for wins when their starting pitching wasn't exactly dominant.

That formula came unraveled against Indiana in OSU's second Big Ten baseball tournament game. The clutch hitting didn't materialize, the defense let them down, and Rucinski and Hale never took the mound. The only thing that went true to form in OSU's 13-3 loss was the lack of dominant pitching for OSU.

The lapses on defense and offense could not have come at a worse time for OSU. The Hoosiers ended the season as the hottest team in the Big Ten as the regular-season ended. They are clearly the hottest team in the Big Ten tournament having outscored the opposition by a whopping 34-7 count.

OSU starter Dean Wolosianski won 11 games this season but was carrying an ERA over 5.00. Wolosianski has been the beneficiary of strong offensive support by his teammates, but against Indiana starter Blake Monar OSU's bats could not bail out Wolosianski, and eventually Indiana's offense, helped by some uncharacteristic lapses in the field by the Buckeyes, turned the game into a one-sided laugher.

"The key to the game was the fifth inning," said OSU Head Coach Bob Todd.

"We loaded the bases with none out and hit into a double play and don't score any runs. I think that really swung the momentum."

OSU was leading 2-0 after two innings of play, but the Hoosiers had come back to take a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the fourth when they got to Wolosianski for five hits.

It looked like OSU would answer in the fifth when they loaded the bases with none out against Monar, but a ground ball to third base off the bat of OSU second baseman Corey Kovanda resulted in a force out at the plate followed by a put out at first to erase the lead runner and take the pressure off Monar. A fly out ended the inning with the Hoosiers still holding a one-run lead.

Wolosianski had been effective up to the fifth despite the three-run fourth inning, but his luck ran out in the bottom of inning five. The Hoosiers opened the inning with five consecutive singles to put two runs across and knock Wolosianski out of the game. OSU Head Coach Bob Todd elected to call on Jared Strayer in relief. Strayer hit the first batter he faced to load the bases, then gave up a bases-clearing triple to Indiana second baseman Tyler Rogers. Suddenly the score was 9-2 and OSU was in trouble. An error allowed one more run to score in the inning before Strayer retired the side.

With the game apparently out of reach Todd elected to stay with Strayer rather than lose either Rucinski or Hale for the next game. Strayer managed to keep the Hoosiers off the scoreboard in the sixth and seventh, but gave up three runs in the eighth on three hits, a walk and yet another error. Two of Indiana's runs in the inning were unearned.

The OSU offense that had bailed out their sometime weak pitching never really materialized against what has been a dominant Indiana staff in the tournament.

With the loss OSU falls into the loser's bracket and will play Minnesota at 3:25 in an elimination game. Minnesota stayed alive in the tournament by defeating Illinois earlier in the day to send the Illini packing. The winner of the OSU vs. Minnesota game will advance to the championship game against Indiana at 7:05. If Indiana wins the Hoosiers will be conference tournament champions. If they lose, a second championship game will be played on Sunday at 12:05.

Ohio State will start Eric Best against Minnesota. Best has an overall record of 7-3 and an ERA of 5.35. He has appeared in 18 games, 11 of them as a starter. He has struck out 21 and walked 26. Hitters are hitting .303 against him this year.

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