COLUMBUS, Ohio — At times it looked odd. At times it looked bleak. At times it looked improbable.
But the Buckeyes brotherhood wasn’t to be denied a four-game home sweep over the team that entered the weekend atop the Big Ten standings.
Ohio State (12-7) used a two-out, walk-off single off the bat of junior shortstop Zach Dezenzo to defeat Indiana (11-7) by a score of 4-3 on Easter Sunday.
"I think it was more like the sixth inning when it was 1-0 at that time and I just said, ‘Guys, if I had told you on Thursday that you had four innings, you’re down one, four innings to go to sweep Indiana,’ and on Thursday you’d have taken it, I said, ‘Let’s put the first five innings of this game behind us and let’s play these last four innings like we’re playing to sweep the series,’" head coach Greg Beals said.
Indiana’s redshirt-freshman right fielder Morgan Colopy mashed a ground-rule double to left-center field to leadoff the top of the eighth inning, and he let out a yell in motivation to his Hoosiers dugout. One batter later, Colopy came around to score as senior catcher Collin Hopkins hit a chopper to the mound and Buckeyes junior right-hander Bayden Root’s throw went up the right-field line, giving Indiana a 2-1 lead.
Graduate left-hander Patrick Murphy came on in relief and gave up an RBI double to junior left fielder Drew Ashley, pushing the lead to 3-1.
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With one out in the bottom half of the inning, sophomore right fielder Mitchell Okuley drew a walk, and the next three Buckeyes banged base hits - doubling their total to that point in the game. Redshirt-senior first baseman Conner Pohl and freshman center fielder Kade Kern each contributed an RBI single to tie the game at three, giving Ohio State new life.
Murphy buckled down in the ninth, working the lone 1-2-3 inning that Ohio State recorded after allowing seven Indiana hits all game - and the Hoosiers left 13 runners on base.
Junior third baseman Nick Erwin worked the count full and drew a one-out walk, and advanced to second on senior designated hitter Sam Wilson’s 0-2 single to the outfield.
Okuley fouled out, and up came Dezenzo, who made an error in the fourth inning that allowed the Hoosiers to score their first run. Indiana freshman right-hander John Modugno offered a slider for a first-pitch strike, and Dezenzo knew what was coming next.
“In previous at-bat he threw me a follow-up fastball middle-in, and I hammered that pitch and I was sitting on that for my last at-bat, too,” Dezenzo said. “Same spot, same pitch, was on time for the fastball and yanked it down the line. Luckily, I got it over the third baseman’s head.”
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Dezenzo roped the ball down the left-field line and Erwin rounded third base and touched home plate, and then the celebration was on.
The Buckeyes shortstop was doused with a Gatorade bath after his 4-5 performance.
“The thing that has been best about our ballclub this weekend is it’s not been about anybody,” Beals said. “We have had a consistent effort from everybody in the entire program on finding a way to win. We’re playing for Ohio State and we’re playing for our team. Our guys put things behind and just went out and played.
“Just a really big weekend for us to spark that believing factor and get ourselves right in the thick of things.”
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Junior right-handed pitcher Will Pfennig made his fourth start of the season, and fell behind in a 2-1 count and hit Indiana leadoff hitter Ashley. The righty threw over to first more than several times, and his persistence caught Ashley leaning to pick up the inning’s second out.
Pfennig hit Hoosiers freshman second baseman Paul Toetz to begin the second inning and also issued a one-out, full-count walk to senior first baseman Jordan Fucci. A wild pitch moved the two into precarious position, but Pfennig buckled down for a 2-2 swinging strikeout to end the threat.
The right-hander allowed a leadoff single and hit his third batter of the game with one out in the fourth inning. After already walking two but just allowing one hit, Beals lifted Pfennig in favor of redshirt-senior righty Joe Gahm, who hadn’t allowed a run in any of his eight appearances in the season.
"Just the pitchers trying to pitch up and trying to be maybe too fine even, trying to be too nasty with their stuff and just getting a little too ramped up, leading to the hit batsman and the walks," Beals said of the game's eight total walks and seven hit batsmen. "Some of the walks are not necessarily by design, but there’s some game management. You’re pitching a guy tough, not necessarily pitching around him, but you’re going to make sure that if he does something it’s going to be off our stuff and we’re not going to give in to him."
Gahm walked Colopy on a full count to load the bases, and Hoosiers senior shortstop Jeremy Houston hit a bouncer to Dezenzo, and the Buckeye shortstop booted the ball and the first run crossed the plate.
Freshman left-hander Isaiah Coupet took the mound in the fifth inning for his fourth appearance. Coupet allowed a leadoff single to sophomore center fielder Grant Richardson, then issued a two-out walk to senior designated hitter Grant Macciocchi.
A double-steal put the runners on second and third, but as the lefty showcased his breaking ball plenty, he rang up his second hitter of the inning to end the jam.
Two hit batsmen in the bottom half of the fifth inning put runners on first and second. Indiana sophomore righty starting pitcher Gabe Bierman, who’d shown plenty of emotion and poise at the ends of the preceding innings, forced just his second flyout of the game as senior designated hitter Sam Wilson flew out to center field.
Bierman pitched through seven innings, exiting with the game tied 1-1. He totaled five strikeouts and gave up three hits and one unearned run, but walked two and hit another pair.
Each of the first three Buckeyes in the bottom of the sixth reached base via an error, single and walk, respectively, loading the bases for freshman center fielder Kade Kern. In a unique event, Kern popped the first pitch he saw into foul territory near first base, and Fucci made the catch, but tripped over sliding Toetz.
Okuley, who reached on the earlier E2, capitalized and raced home to tie the ballgame at one.
“I think the energy was just there the whole game," Kern said. "We wanted that sweep, we wanted that 4-0. We were just putting our all."
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Things got interesting in the seventh. Hoosiers junior third baseman Cole Barr led off with a double down the left field line. Then, Toetz hit a chopper in front of the mound to which Root grabbed and fired to first base.
The throw went up the right field line, and Barr crossed the plate, but home plate umpire Jon Saphire ruled runner’s interference - no run, and it went down as a 1-3 putout. The Buckeyes turned a 3-6 double play to end the inning.
Things carried over into the eighth, just like deja vu. Colopy drove a ground-rule double to left-center field. Then, senior catcher Collin Hopkins hit another chopper to the mound, and Root’s throw to first base went up the line again.
This time, though, no runner’s interference, and Colopy scored, giving the Hoosiers a 2-1 lead. Ashley tacked on another run with an RBI double in the first at-bat against Murphy, who entered in relief of Root.
Richardson laid down a bunt single to put runners on the corners, but Murphy struck out Barr and forced Toetz to ground out to end any more of the rally.
Hoosiers reliever Modugno struck out Wilson to begin the bottom half of the eigth, then issued a walk to Okuley. Up to this point in the game, the Buckeyes knocked just three hits, but Dezenzo, Pohl and Kern doubled that total with three-straight, and the latter two scored runs, tying the ballgame at three entering the final frame.
Both teams walked a combined eight batters and hit seven others. The Buckeyes had five hit batsmen and four walks of their own, and allowed a baserunner in each of the first eight innings, but Murphy locked in to retire the side in the ninth.
With their new life and energy, Erwin drew a walk and Wilson singled after freshman pinch-hitter Caden Kaiser flew out to start the bottom half.
Okuley flew out on two pitches, and the Ohio State shortstop needed as many to bop the game-winning hit over Barr at third base, then met his teammates at his six-hole as they celebrated.
"Another great example of that today was Sam Wilson’s at-bat in the ninth inning. Sam hadn’t had a very good day and was a little frustrated at the plate," Beals said. "You know, when it got down to crunch time there in the ninth inning, he had his last at-bat, he stayed on a ball and got a base hit the other way to move the line and get it to Okuley and Z to try to win a ballgame."
Next weekend, ‘The Rivalry’ renews as Ohio State travels to Ann Arbor for three games at Michigan, which finished as the runner-up in the 2019 College World Series to champion Vanderbilt.
