BOX SCORE (PDF)
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Trailing by a run in the top of the seventh inning, Morehead State Baseball sophomore leftfielder
Tyler Niemann crushed a ball that literally missed being a home run to right field by mere inches, and the host Ohio State Buckeyes got out of the inning and held on to edge the Eagles 1-0 Tuesday at Bill Davis Stadium.
MSU fell to 19-14, while Ohio State moved to 20-11-1. The Buckeyes also hosted the Eagles twice last season and shut out MSU 7-0 in the second game.
Ohio State scored the game's only run in the second inning off MSU starter
Curtis Wilson. Troy Kuhn led off with a smash that just evaded the glove of Eagle third baseman
Alex Stephens and richocheted into shallow left field. He moved to second on a balk and to third on a sacrifice bunt. Ryan Leffel then bounced a double down the left field line that narrowly evaded Stephens' dive at third base again.
In the seventh, Niemann sat at second base with one out after the near-miss double that bounced off the top of the wall. But, Buckeye reliever Seth Kinker coaxed a shallow pop out and strike out to end the threat.
"We couldn't have asked for better pitching, and I was proud of the fact that we only struck out three times on offense," said Head Coach
Mike McGuire. "We could have done things better situationally again, and that might have changed the outcome. We got doubled off one time on a line drive and hit too many pop ups and easy ground balls. But, I think we know we have the ability to beat this team."
Wilson absorbed the hard-luck loss to fall to 0-4. He tossed his longest outing of the year (6.0 innings), gave up six hits and struck out three. Junior
Cable Wright made his 75th career appearance, and sophomore
Brent Stoneking closed out the eighth.
Austin Woodby only surrendered four hits in the opening five innings to grab the win and improve to 4-1. Yianni Pavlopoulos secured his seventh save.
The Eagles had six hits, led by junior first baseman
Jesus Carrera going 3-for-4 and Niemann collecting two hits, including a bunt single as well.
The teams will wrap up the mid-week series on Wednesday at 6:35 p.m. ET.
