Comeback Bid Falls Short as Ohio State Losses to Florida Atlantic 6-4
Drew Anderson hit his 10th career triple against FAU to pull within two of the school record.
March 23, 2004
BOCA RATON, Fla. - Ohio State pulled within one run in the top of the eighth inning, but allowed two runs in the bottom of the inning as No. 19 Florida Atlantic handed the Buckeyes a 6-4 loss Tuesday night at FAU Field. The Buckeyes pulled within a 4-3 score, capitalizing on the first error of the game by Florida Atlantic. After a strike out to start the inning,
Mike Rabin (Jr., West Chester, Ohio/Lakota East) launched a towering shot just off the infield grass, which was dropped by the Alex, Fonseca, Owls' shortstop. Rabin reached second on the error and scored on a single through the right side by
Jedidiah Stephen (So., Caldwell, Ohio/Shenandoah). After the second pitching change by Florida Atlantic, Stephen was caught stealing to end the scoring threat.
Florida Atlantic took a 6-3 lead, scoring two more runs in the bottom of the inning. Fonseca made up for his error by leading off the inning with a single to shallow right field. Robbie Widlansky pushed a bunt between the pitcher, second baseman and first baseman before Buckeye relief pitcher
Dan DeLucia (Fr., Columbus, Ohio/Bishop Watterson) threw wide of first base, allowing Fonseca to advance to third. Ohio State replaced DeLucia with Fausnaugh, who gave up a walk to load the bases.
Brett Garrard (Sr., Brownsburg, Ind./Brownsburg) then made clutch play at short to throw out Fonseca at home. The Buckeyes then brought in left-handed pitcher
Jesse Paciorek (Jr., Lakewood, Ohio/Lakewood) to face two lefties. Paciorek gave up a single through the right side by Tim Mascia that scored both Widlansky and pinch runner Jarrod Lauth to give the Owls a three-run advantage with three outs to play.
Those two runs proved costly for Ohio State, which would have tied the game, 4-4, in the top of the ninth. Garrard delivered a one-out infield single and moved to third on a ground out by
Ronnie Bourquin (Fr., Canton, Ohio/Canton South). Garrard stole third and scored on a wild pitch.
Owls' designated hitter Jordan Hafer was a perfect 3-for-3 in the game, though it was Mascia, who delivered three RBI for Florida Atlantic in a 2-for-4 night. Rob Horst was also 2-for-4 knocking in one of the six runs. Stephen and
Drew Anderson (Jr., Brownsburg, Ind./Brownsburg) were both 2-for-4 for the Buckeyes, which were out-hit 12-8.
Buckeye starter
Mike Madsen (Jr., Chesterland, Ohio/Notre Dame Cathedral Latin) retired the first seven batters of the game before giving up a single up the middle to Widlansky. Hafer singled through the right side to moved Widlanski to third before Madsen walked Derek Hutton to load the bases for Mascia. Mascia split the first and second basemen to score Widlansky and then a throwing error by Stephen, the Buckeye first baseman, allowed Hafer to score, giving the Owls a 2-0 lead with runners at the corners. After a strikeout for the second out of the game, Horst singled through the left side to score Hutton and put Florida Atlantic up 3-0.
Jeff Fiorentino homered to right field to put another run on the board in the fifth inning to extend the lead to 4-0. On any other day, the ball would have been a normal fly out to right field but a 20-25 mile per hour wind lifted the ball over the fence.
Anderson led off the sixth inning with his 10th career triple and scored on a base knock through the left side by Rabin to make it a 4-1 game. Anderson's triple went all the way to the wall in right-center field and the speedy Anderson never hesitated when rounding second. It was the second triple for Anderson in as many games and moved him into a three-way tie for fourth on the career triples list with Mark Carek and
Christian Snavely. He is now within two triples of the school record held by
Jason Driscoll (1997-2000).
After a fly out and a strikeout,
Cody Caughenbaugh (So., Newark, Ohio/Licking Valley) pinch hit for
Adam Schneider (Fr., Agoura Hills, Calif./Agoura Hills) and drove a ball into right field to score Rabin, who stole second earlier in the inning. That pulled the Buckeyes within two runs, 4-2.
After getting two outs to start the bottom of the sixth, Madsen gave up back-to-back base hits. Madsen, who threw 42 pitches in picking up his third win of the season in a relief appearance Saturday against Rutgers, topped 100 pitches in the inning and was lifted in favor of DeLucia, who walked the first batter he faced to load the bases and then got Fiorentino to ground out to first base.
Florida Atlantic starter Jason Costello improved to 2-0 with the victory, pitching 5.1 innings, allowing two runs on five hits with six strikeouts against one walk. Madsen got the loss to drop to 3-2 on the season in 5.2 innings. He allowed four runs on eight hits, striking out five while walking three. Chris Saxton pitched the final 1.1 innings to pick up his fifth save of the season. Ohio State (7-8) and Florida Atlantic (22-4) meet again Wednesday at 7 p.m. before the Buckeyes return to Columbus on Thursday. The team has the weekend off before the home opener against Eastern Michigan March 31 at 6:35 p.m. at Bill Davis Stadium.
