COLUMBUS, Ohio — Buckeyes head coach Greg Beals has praised junior pitcher Garrett Burhenn for his workman-like performances in recent outings, and the right-hander turned in yet another to close the month of April.
Ohio State (16-13) defeated Purdue (10-19) by a score of 11-3 Friday evening after a quality start from Burhenn and an offensive performance that saw seven players knock a base hit.
“I was really happy with the total engagement and energy that our ballclub had on the field, in the dugout, all around,” Beals said. “We just finished exams this week and maybe that’s the load off the back, and our guys certainly acted like it and played like it tonight.”
Burhenn pitched seven innings for the second-straight start and upped his strikeout total to nine. He scattered eight hits and walked four, but allowed four runs as his offense provided early run support for the right-hander to settle.
Redshirt-senior Brent Todys, who built on his impressive April with two more hits Friday, got the scoring started with a 2-run single in the bottom of the first inning. Redshirt-senior first baseman Conner Pohl and junior third baseman Nick Erwin each contributed three hits, while the former drilled a home run and the latter scored twice.
“Just wanted to start early, start slow and be ready to go to hit my fastball,” Erwin said. “I think a lot of us tonight were on time for that fastball and able to do some damage with it.”
A rather tedious first inning for both teams finished with the Buckeyes coming away with a pair of runs.
First, Boilermakers sophomore designated hitter Mike Bolton Jr. hit a leadoff infield single, then swiped second and third base to make up two of Purdue’s three first-inning stolen bases. The Boilermakers had runners on second and third, but Bolton was tagged out at home plate when a wild pitch was corralled by Todys.
In the bottom half of the inning, Todys came through again with a 2-run single, extending his hitting streak to nine games after the Buckeyes used a pair of walks and a hit batsman to load the bases with no outs.
Ohio State connected with three hits in each of the next two innings, and Pohl swatted his team-leading ninth home run over the wall in right field during the third inning.
The hits continued to flood in even after the Buckeyes chased Purdue junior left-handed starting pitcher Calvin Schapira, who allowed five runs across seven hits and four walks in 3+ innings. Freshman center fielder Kade Kern hit a one-out single, then was driven in alongside sophomore right fielder Mitchell Okuley on Pohl’s 2-run double in the fourth.
Burhenn had retired four-straight before Purdue knocked two hits in the fourth inning, then scrapped a run across in the fifth on fifth-year center fielder Skyler Hunter’s RBI single.
Burhenn worked himself into trouble an inning later as three of the first four Boilermakers reached, loading the bases with one out. He picked up the second out on a strikeout looking, but surrendered a 2-run single off the bat of redshirt-freshman pinch hitter Jack Firestone
“His pitch count was up, it was up a little bit higher than it’s been, but I felt like Garrett was our best guy [in the moment],” Beals said. “I wanted him to work out of that, I wanted him to get six innings and three runs or less and have a quality start. He had to do a little more work, but we got him to that spot and really happy — again — a workman-type performance from Garrett Burhenn.”
The Buckeyes responded by putting three of their first four on base in the bottom half of the inning, and Erwin drew a bases-loaded walk to add another run.
Junior shortstop Zach Dezenzo cleared the board with a 3-run, stand-up triple with two outs to cap the four-run sixth inning, putting Ohio State ahead 11-3 for good.
Freshman left-hander Isaiah Coupet delivered two-scoreless innings out of the bullpen, wracking four strikeouts before bridging to redshirt-freshman righty Ethan Hammerberg for a perfect ninth inning.
“I think the thing that’s really cool is we stretched out a lead tonight and you’re able to get Coupet and Hammerberg, and you can see the strength and the depth of this pitching staff,” Beals said. “Isaiah Coupet, a guy that’s got four pitches in his arsenal, has the ability to strike guys out with the breaking balls that he has. And then Ethan Hammerberg comes in and I don’t know what the velocity was, but by all accounts and what he’s capable of, I bet the fastball was up to 94 miles an hour.”
Dezenzo, Pohl and Todys accounted for nine of the Buckeyes’ 10 RBIs, and Ohio State drew 13 walks versus nine strikeouts while leaving 14 runners on base. The Buckeyes saw their leadoff hitters reach in seven of their eight turns to bat.
Eight different Boilermakers collected a hit, and fifth-year catcher Zac Fascia led the way with a 2-for-4 performance.
The second game of the weekend series will begin Saturday at 3 p.m. featuring redshirt-junior left-hander Seth Lonsway, owning the second-most punch outs in the Big Ten with 71, squaring off against senior righty Trent Johnson, who sports a 4.70 earned-run average alongside 48 strikeouts in 44 innings pitched.
