COLUMBUS, Ohio — Throughout nine innings of breezy, chilly - occasionally rainy - and windy baseball, perhaps the only spark of heat was the fastball leaving Jack Neely’s hand.
Ohio State (8-6) defeated Maryland (5-9) early Sunday evening 5-4 after scoring two runs in the seventh inning and getting five strong innings from its third-year starting pitcher.
"It was definitely a point of emphasis, getting past that fifth inning, it’s something we work for," Neely said. "It’s definitely a mental game to get past there, and happy I could get there and give the team a chance to win. If I can get ahead with the fastball, it really opens up other opportunities with other pitches. We just started with fastball, and let the offspeed play.”
Neely was unfazed by the leadoff home run he allowed to senior center fielder Chris Alleyne. The 6-foot-8 righty retired the next five batters, including four on strikes, as he worked a season-high five innings. Neely also tied his career-high with 11 strikeouts, a figure he reached in his previous time in the collegiate ranks.
Junior shortstop Zach Dezenzo reached in all four of his plate appearances, going 3-3 and a triple shy of the cycle behind two RBIs.
"I would say today was very, very comparable to some of the games that I experienced in high school in northeast Ohio," Dezenzo said. "Breakout kind of day. It felt really good to get those three hits. The conditions really didn’t play a whole lot into my approach coming into today, but it felt really good to get those three hits today."
The Terrapins rallied by loading the bases with two outs in the eighth and getting the tying-run in scoring position in the ninth inning, but junior RHP T.J. Brock closed the door in both innings for his fourth save of the season.
Alleyne teased a longball with a long drive foul of the right-field foul pole earlier in his at-bat before turning on the fifth pitch for his third homer of the season to start the game. Maryland’s offense was challenged by Neely on the mound for the next several innings, working walks in the second and third until a pair were drawn in the fifth.
Dezenzo tied the game with a solo home run to center field to start the bottom half of the fourth inning. Head coach Greg Beals made a change to the top of the batting order entering the day, switching typical leadoff hitter senior Sam Wilson to No. 6 for sophomore Mitchell Okuley, who had hits in three of his last five games.
The Buckeyes had a base hit in each of the first two innings, even getting junior left fielder Marcus Ernst into scoring position after he stole second in the second frame, but couldn’t make something of it.
Ohio State took its first lead in the fifth inning when senior second baseman Colton Bauer drove in redshirt-senior catcher Brent Todys on a one-out sacrifice fly. Dezenzo continued his hot day at the plate with an RBI double to score junior third baseman Nick Erwin, who reached on a walk following Todys’ leadoff single.
"Got down 0-2 early, didn’t exactly want that to happen, you never really want that to happen. Then threw me a breaking pitch that kind of hung over the middle and I was just ready to hit whether he threw me a fastball or an offspeed, I was ready to hit," Dezenzo said. "Put a good swing on it and hit it hard. Sometimes the game kind of favors you and sometimes it doesn’t. I got the better end of that today."
Junior RHP Bayden Root came on in relief to begin the sixth inning. Root was greeted to a leadoff double by senior right fielder Randy Bednar, who later came around to score on a fielding error three batters later. The Terrapins tied the game at three with an RBI bunt single by junior shortstop Benjamin Cowles, who came into the game with the Big Ten’s best slugging percentage with 1.024.
Erwin began the bottom half of the seventh with a single to center field, then advanced to second on sophomore right fielder Mitchell Okuley’s bunt single. Both runners came around to give the Buckeyes their 5-3 lead on freshman center fielder Kade Kern’s grounder to second, to which Terrapins freshman second baseman Kevin Keister made an error.
Freshman left fielder Logan Ott led off the eighth inning with a double, then scored on Cowles second RBI single of the game. Brock came on in relief after senior catcher Justin Vought knocked the Terrapins' third-straight hit, and got all three outs via strikes while walking one with two down to work out of the threat.
"Games like this when it’s cold out and your backs are up against the wall, pressure situation, you just want to stay even, calmed, keep your emotions not high or low, just even-keel," Brock said. "I was just focusing on making my pitch, going at 90% and going out there and competing and putting the team in the best opportunity to win because ultimately, you got to make the pitch before you can do anything else."
The Buckeyes and Terrapins finish their two-game mini series Monday at 3 p.m. Junior RHP Will Pfennig will start his third game of the season for Ohio State, while two-time Big Ten Freshman of the Week righty Jason Savacool will get the ball for Maryland.
"We’ve already scouted him out, and we’ll have video to show the guys tomorrow before the game," Beals said of Savacool. "He’s a guy that’s going to mix it up from a lot of different angles, just going to compete and basically throw the kitchen sink at us kind of like their starter did today. He’s going to mix it up a lot and even change arm angles.
"He’ll drop down low and throw more over the top at times, and just get up there and compete with different stuff.”