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COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio State baseball team held Morehead State scoreless for the final seven innings as the Eagles dropped a 6-3 decision to the Buckeyes at Bill Davis Stadium Tuesday evening.
OSU improved to 27-10 overall and 16-4 on its home turf. Morehead State, which has still won 14 of its last 16 games, slipped to 25-15.
"Ohio State is a good club and you have to give them credit," Head Coach Mike McGuire said. "They ran some good arms out at us tonight. We needed to control Ohio State's running game better and handle their short game. They stole too many bases and had several bunt singles. Those were two areas that really hurt us."
Morehead State led 3-1 heading to the bottom of the second thanks to a two-run, first-inning homer by senior first baseman Kane Sweeney. The blast to center field, which scored sophomore centerfielder Ryan Kent, was Sweeney's seventh this year and 22
nd of his MSU tenure.
Freshman second baseman Braxton Morris tacked on the Eagles' third run with a single in the second to score fellow freshman catcher Tyler Niemann. MSU, boasting the nation's leading offense, was held to just two hits in the final seven frames though.
"I was disappointed how we swung the bats the last half of tonight's game," McGuire added. "Too many of our guys had non-competitive at-bats, which is disappointing. It's one thing to go 0-for-4, but it's another thing to go 0-of-4 and not be competitive. That's something we talked about after the game."
The Buckeyes knotted the game 3-3 in the second, added a run in the fourth and tallied their final two in the sixth.
Catcher Connor Sabanosh laced an RBI single in the second and added an RBI double in the fourth. Centerfielder Troy Montgomery nailed a run-scoring single in the sixth.
Southpaw Michael Horejsi entered in the fifth for the hosts and was credited with the victory, his first of 2015. He struck three in two innings of work. Righty Trace Dempsey struck out the side in the ninth for his team-best sixth save.
Montgomery, Sabanosh, leftfielder Ronnie Dawson and second baseman Jalen Washington had two hits apiece for OSU, which totaled 10 hits off four MSU pitchers.
Morris and senior shortstop Robby Spencer tallied two hits each for the Eagles. Spencer extended his hitting streak to a team-best 19 games. Senior rightfielder Brandon Rawe (20), senior leftfielder Nick Newell (18) and Kent (18) all saw their lengthy hitting streaks halted.
MSU freshman lefty Aaron Leasher surrendered eight hits and four runs, all earned, in the first four frames and slipped to 2-3.
The teams will conclude their mid-week series on Wednesday. First pitch is set for 6:35 p.m. ET. Michael Gustin will have live audio play-by-play on MSUEagles.com and the Eagle Empire app. The game will also feature live video (pay-per-view) on the Big 10 Network Plus.
"We've been an even-keel team all year," McGuire said. "We need to bounce back tomorrow. Ohio State is a good club, but I like our chances if we play to our potential."
