Baseball
Kent Takes a Tight One at Bill Davis
By John Porentas

In a quirk of college baseball logic, two ranked teams met in Columbus in a game that has potential NCAA tournament implications, and both elected to play the game as if it were not as important as their upcoming league games.

Both Ohio State and Kent State are ranked in the top 30 in some baseball polls, and both have NCAA aspirations at the end of the regular season. The meeting between them at Bill Davis Stadium had every potential to affect NCAA seeding or even if one team and not the other will make the NCAA field. In short, it was a big game for both teams, yet both teams elected to play the game as if it didn't matter as much as their upcoming weekend series within their respective leagues.

"I know both teams were thinking about the weekend. They've got conference play this weekend and we do to, so there were certain things you were doing with your pitching staff to save people, but you were also trying to win this ball game," said OSU Head Coach Bob Todd.

Neither club pitched their top pitching, choosing instead to hold that pitching for the weekend. The result was an offensive display in a well-played, error-free, entertaining baseball game the Golden Flashes eventually won by a final of 8-7.

"I expected a tight ball game. I didn't think anybody was going to walk away with it," Todd said.

Neither team committed an error despite wet, cold, soggy playing conditions and both teams showed the ability to hit the baseball against the second-tier pitching of the opposition. Ohio State banged out 13 hits against a parade of five Golden Flash hurlers. Kent State knocked around four OSU hurlers for 17 hits.

What the game may have lacked in dominant pitching it made up for with see-saw scoring that kept the game in doubt until the very end despite the heavy offensive output by both teams. Kent State took an early 2-0 lead with two runs in the second, but the Buckeyes countered with two to tie in the third. Kent went back up with two in the fifth, but OSU rallied for three in the bottom of that inning to take a 5-4 lead. Kent retook the lead with three in the sixth to go up 7-5, and OSU answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning to tie it at seven.

Kent put up a run in the seventh to go up 8-7, then held on for the win despite two scoring opportunities for OSU in the late innings. OSU advanced runners to second and third with two outs in the eighth and failed to score. The advanced a runner to second with one out in the ninth but also left him stranded to allow Kent State to claim the win.

"We left a lot of runners in scoring position," lamented Todd. "I know we left the bases loaded once, maybe twice. When you're talking about one-run ball games that's when you have to come through with big base hits."

Todd was not happy with the loss, but did not second guess his decision to save pitching for the weekend despite the possible NCAA implications of the game.

"People around the country are talking about our RPI is like 21, Kent State in some polls are ranked in the top-20," Todd said.

"Many people believe both of us are going to be in the NCAA tournament, those implications are there, but I think everybody understands that we're in the middle of a conference race and that's the still the number one priority right now."

Ohio State travels to Purdue this weekend for a three-game Big Ten series with the Boilermakers. Following their sweep of Michigan State last weekend he Buckeyes are currently tied for third in the Big Ten Standings but just a half game out of first.

Box Score

Big Ten Standings as of April 15

                                Big Ten              Overall
     Team                   W   L   T   Pct       W   L   T   Pct
     Minnesota...........   6   2   0  .750      21  10   0  .677
     Indiana.............   6   2   0  .750      16  17   0  .485
     Ohio State..........   6   3   0  .667      26   7   0  .788
     Illinois............   6   3   0  .667      21   9   0  .700
     Purdue..............   5   3   0  .625      15  15   0  .500
     Michigan............   4   5   0  .444      19  13   0  .594
     Penn State..........   4   5   0  .444      19  14   0  .576
     Michigan State......   3   6   0  .333      11  21   0  .344
     Iowa................   2   7   0  .222      11  21   0  .344
     Northwestern........   1   7   0  .125       8  23   0  .258

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