Softball
Spartans Drop Buckeyes 4-3 with Seventh Inning Rally
By Kevin Schlosser

The Ohio State softball team was defeated 4-3 by visiting Michigan State on Friday night. In a game that was delayed almost an hour for rain, the Buckeyes never got things going as they fell behind early, rallied to tie the score, and gave the game away in the seventh. In the process they lost their third straight at home and four out of the last five. OSU fell to 2-3 in the Big Ten and 23-12 overall; while MSU improved to 17-15 and 3-2 in conference.

The game was scoreless the first two innings before Michigan State went up 1-0 in the top of the third. They scored two more runs in the fourth before Ohio State scored two in the bottom half of the inning with a Karisa Medrano RBI single and a Rachel Shepherd RBI double. The Buckeyes kept the Spartans off the scoreboard in the fifth and sixth innings and tied the score with a solo homerun by Sam Marder in the sixth.

Ohio State was their own worst enemy in the seventh inning. After getting the first out, they put two on when Kim Reeder hit the second batter and the third reached base by error. Michigan State loaded the bases with an infield single and Reeder hit the next batter to send the tiebreaking run across the plate. Avoiding any further damage, OSU would get the force out at home and Reeder struck out the last batter to end the inning and leave the bases loaded.

Trailing 4-3 in the bottom of the seventh Tory Haddad hit a one out single to start a Buckeye rally. Rebecca Schultz came in to pinch run and advanced to second on a wild pitch. She moved to third on a Liz Caputo ground out. The rally got no further as Schultz was stranded at third when Brittany Goodchild grounded out to second to end the game.

"We wanted to come out and attack and I thought our kids did a good job, but we made mistakes that were costly," said OSU head coach Linda Kalafatis after the game. You either do enough to win or you don’t and we didn’t. We gave ourselves a chance and our at bats got better as the game went on, but we just gave them too many base runners."

In defeat junior Kim Reeder (12-7) pitched her thirteenth complete game this season and tied a season high with nine strikeouts. On her final pitch she struck out the last Spartan looking and in the process logged the 400th strikeout of her career.

"Reeder got out of some jams and made some good pitches. I was proud of her effort and the way she attacked the hitters," complimented Kalafatis. "I know she wanted to win as much as anyone today but she was more concerned with getting the "W" than the numbers."

The Buckeyes had their chances offensively and defensively. They made solid contact throughout the game, but three walks, four hit batters, and three errors were too much to overcome. In a one run loss, two of their errors led directly to two unearned runs.

"At this point everyone has scouting reports on everyone," reflected Kalafatis. "We hit some balls right at them and our lefties just missed getting on, which is a big part of our offense. If we can get those guys producing and causing some havoc and kids coming through at the right time we’ll get some more runs up there."

Ohio State will return to action on Saturday with a second game against Michigan State. The game is scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m. at Buckeye Field. OSU will conclude a twelve game home stand on Sunday with a doubleheader against Northwestern. The Wildcats are currently are first in the Big Ten at 4-0 and 17-9 overall.

We need to come back tomorrow positive and pumped up. You don’t want to think about the game before whether you win or lose," said catcher Sam Marder. "You need to focus on the game at hand and I expect us to come out strong on Saturday."

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