May 27, 2005

Box Score

CHAMPAIGN, ILLINOIS - Ohio State sent 12 men to the plate in the home half of the seventh inning, scoring nine runs to power the Buckeyes to a 15-6 victory over Minnesota here Friday (May 27) in the winners' bracket game of the 2005 Big Ten Conference Baseball Tournament held at Illinois Field on the campus of the University of Illinois.

The fifth seeded Buckeyes improve to 38-17 on the season and will now play Saturday evening at 7:05 p.m. central time for the Big Ten tournament title and the conferences automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament. That game will be against the winner of the consolation bracket final between Minnesota and Purdue which begins at 3:35 p.m. central time on Saturday. The sixth seeded Gophers record falls to 31-28 overall with the loss.

Both starters got tagged for runs in the first inning. In the top of the opening stanza, an Andy Hunter single plated Luke MacLean while the next batter - Kevin Carlson - hit a double to center to score Hunter and make it a 2-0 Golden Gopher lead after a half inning.

Ohio State thundered back with three runs in the bottom of the first due to an error by UM center fielder Tony Leseman on a drive off the wall in left-center by Steve Caravati. Mike Rabin scored on the play to make it a 2-1 game. An Adam Schneider double scored Caravati, who had reached third on the error, while Ronnie Bourquin's single up the middle scored Schneider to give Ohio State a 3-2 lead after only one inning.

Minnesota would retie the game in the top of the second when MacLean singled into right field which scored Tony Leseman from second. A pair of Buckeye errors on the left-side of the infield (one by shortstop Jedidiah Stephen and one by third baseman Ronnie Bourquin) allowed the Gophers to take a 4-3 lead midway through the second inning.

Two more runs crossed the plate for UM in the top of the third. A Joe Maciej single to center field allowed Leseman and Mike Mee to score to make it a 6-3 game in the favor of the Gophers.

Ohio State answered with two runs of its own in the bottom of the third. Bourquin grounded out to shortstop to score Caravati and advance Schneider to third. Jedidiah Stephen then stepped up and lined a triple down the right field line to score Schneider and make it a 6-5 game after three innings.

The Buckeyes would score runs in both the sixth and seventh innings. In the bottom of inning sixth a Matt Angle groundout scored Paul Farinacci to tie the game while in the seventh, a Schneider double scored Cavarati from first to make it an 8-6 game. Several batters later, Gary Perinar plunked Jason Zoeller to load the bases and then hit Stephen in the head to force in a run and make in an 8-6 game. A junior, Stephen would remain in the game and take his place at first. Andy Peters then entered the game and walked Farinacci to force in the ninth run of the game.

Ohio State began to open up a big lead starting with a double by Eric Fryer down the left field line which scored two runs to make it 11-6 OSU. Matt Angle added and RBI single to make it a 12-6 game with runners till on the corners and nobody out. After a sacrifice fly scored the seventh run of the inning, Caravati stepped up and blasted an opposite-field homerun to make it 15-6 on nine Buckeye runs in the seventh frame.

Big Ten Baseball

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