COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Despite the handful of double plays turned Friday evening, none of which resembled the final score.
Wearing its home-white uniforms, Ohio State (9-7) defeated grey-pinstriped Indiana (11-4) by a score of 3-2 as senior designated hitter Sam Wilson returned to the leadoff spot and reached base in all four of his plate appearances, driving two doubles and scoring as many times.
Junior right-handed pitcher Garrett Burhenn built off his seven-shutout innings a week ago with six innings of three-hit, two-run ball. He struck out five Hoosiers hitters, but walked three more, tying his season high.
“I just tried to live down in the zone like last week," Burhenn said. "That’s a great hitting team. They hit mistakes. Cole’s a great hitter, I know Cole [Barr] from back home. He hit mistakes and their whole team can hit mistakes, so I tried to have my best game and live down like last week."
A pair of RBI singles and a sacrifice fly was enough for the Buckeyes to push across three runs, and three efficient innings in relief from graduate lefty Patrick Murphy and junior righty TJ Brock stifled the Indiana order.
Ohio State scattered seven hits during the game, and junior shortstop Zach Dezenzo went 2-3 with an RBI and walk.
“On a day like today, ball’s not travelling as far, getting on top of it, hit some hard line drives and I think our ballclub did a good job of doing that today," Wilson said. “It was awesome. We definitely needed that, especially against a great Indiana team. Looking forward to getting back after it tomorrow, get another."
Burhenn got through the first inning with no trouble, inducing a pair of groundouts to work through the side. Wilson, who returned to the leadoff spot in the game after hitting No. 6 in the weekend finale versus Maryland, got things started with a double to left field in the bottom half of the first.
"Really, overall, an outstanding day on the mound for us. I thought we pitched the ball very well," head coach Greg Beals said. "We played good defense; we made plays behind them. We had the one error; made the play and bobbled it and the ball sped us up a little bit there. Overall, solid defense. We got ourselves into great situations offensively."
Dezenzo and redshirt-senior first baseman Conner Pohl drew a pair of walks to load the bases for freshman center fielder Kade Kern, who hit a sacrifice fly to center field to give the Buckeyes a 1-0 start after the first inning.
The Buckeyes carried over their good plate discipline in the second inning, drawing two more walks and pushing another run across on Wilson’s RBI single, scoring redshirt-senior catcher Brent Todys from second base. Ohio State finished with as many walks as it did strikeouts at the plate - seven.
"I thought offensively, we gave some tough at-bats. We got into some great situations," Beals said. "You look at it, the number of guys we had on base, we should’ve scored a few more runs. That tells me the plan, and the execution of the plan overall, was very solid. We just missed a couple opportunities to advance some runners and get a couple more runs.”
A pair of double plays ended Ohio State’s rallies in the second and third innings, then the Hoosiers hot bats awoke in the top of the fourth. Junior third baseman Cole Barr led off the inning with a single to left, then came scored on senior first baseman Jordan Fucci’s opposite-field double, cutting the deficit in half 2-1.
However, just as Indiana looked to be cooking something up, the Buckeyes turned a 6-4 double play after senior second baseman Colton Bauer caught a line drive stung off the bat of freshman designated hitter Ethan Vecrumba.
Ohio State pushed its third run across in the fifth inning after Dezenzo knocked an RBI single, scoring Wilson from third. Wilson reached with a leadoff double down the left field line and to the wall, his third hit of the game while Dezenzo’s hit was the third time he reached base.
Barr, who entered the day with Big Ten top-four figures in his .542 on-base percentage and .400 batting average, launched his first home run of the season to right-center field with one down in the sixth.
Murphy relieved Burhenn to start the seventh inning and racked up a triumvirate of strikeouts while working around a walk in each of the two innings he pitched.
Brock came on from the bullpen to close the game out, and did just that. He struck out two Hoosiers to seal the win and earn his fifth save of the season.
“We talked about being better, just being a little more serious. The business-like you saw was from the get-go today," Beals said. "There was a determination amongst our ballclub today and so it was good to get the win. It was good to see that attitude. Look forward to bringing it and developing some consistency."
The Buckeyes and Hoosiers will play two on Saturday, with their doubleheader beginning at 1:05 p.m. Redshirt-junior left-hander Seth Lonsway will start for Ohio State in Game 1, going up against sophomore righty McCade Brown, who was the Big Ten Pitcher of the Week on March 16.
Junior righty Jack Neely will follow his season-high outing by getting the start in Game 2 and contest redshirt-freshman left-handed pitcher Ty Bothwell.
