Buckeyes season ends with a 7-1 loss to the St. John's Red Storm. 40-20 final record. All in all, another good season for the Bucks.
(damn)
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Ohio State Sent Back to Columbus after 7-1 Loss to St. John's
Buckeyes finish season 40-20 after 17th ever appearance in NCAA tournament
Ronnie Bourquin finished
2-for-4 against St. John's
and drove in the Buckeyes
only run in the sixth.
June 5, 2005
CORVALLIS, Ore. - For the first time since its appearance in the 2001 NCAA tournament, Ohio State will not play in a regional championship game after St. John's eliminated the Buckeyes with a 7-1 victory on a miserable Sunday afternoon at the NCAA Corvallis Regional at Goss Stadium at Coleman Field.
The Buckeyes won the NCAA Auburn Regional in its last tournament appearance in 2003 and played Notre Dame in the championship game of the NCAA South Bend Regional in 2002. As host in 2001, the Buckeyes went 0-2 with losses to Delaware and Kent State.
Sunday against the third-seeded Red Storm, the Buckeyes committed three errors and gave up three runs in each of the fourth and fifth innings before giving up a solo home run in the bottom of the eighth.
St. John's got a hit in the bottom of the second and not again until Sam DeLuca led off the fourth with a double to left-center field. The Red Storm got something going after Buckeye starting pitcher Trent Luyster (Sr., Flushing, Ohio/Harrison Central) hit P.J. Antoniato to put two runners on for Will Vogl. Luyster struck him out, but Greg Thomson followed with a single to left-center field to score both runners. He went to third on an errant relay throw to the plate trying to nab Antoniato. Chris Joachim sacrificed himself with a fly out to left to score Thomson and give St. John's a 3-0 lead.
Three more Red Storm runs crossed the plate in the fifth as the Buckeyes continued to struggle defensively. After a foul out to open the inning, Jim Martin reached on an infield single to short and then got to third on a sacrifice bunt by Joe Burke. Ronnie Bourquin (So., Canton, Ohio/Canton South) threw the ball away and allowed Burke to reach second and Martin to reach third. DeLuca followed with a single to left to score Martin and send Burke to third before he scored on single to left by Antoniato. The Buckeyes got the lead runner of a potential double play, but a throwing error on Buckeye second baseman Jason Zoeller (So., Verona, Pa./Shady Side Academy) allowed DeLuca to score and extend the St. John's lead to 6-0. The final two runs of the inning were both unearned.
Ohio State got on the board in the sixth thanks to a lead-off infield single by Mike Rabin (Sr., West Chester, Ohio/Lakota East). The hit came on his 823rd career at bat, which made him the school's all-time leader. He went to third on a dropped fly ball by Vogl, the Red Storm right fielder and then scored on a single through the left side by Bourquin.
St. John's added a solo home run to left by Chris Joachim in the eighth inning to reclaim a six-run lead.
The Buckeyes had chances early, but stranded a runner in each of the first four innings, including a runner at third in the top of the third inning and a runner at second in the fourth inning. Steve Caravati (Sr., Dover, Ohio/Dover) walked in the first and Jedidiah Stephen (Jr., Caldwell, Ohio/Shenandoah) got the Buckeyes first hit with two out in the second. Eric Fryer (Fr., Reynoldsburg, Ohio/Reynoldsburg) led off the third inning with a single to shallow left-center field and when to second on a sacrifice bunt by Matt Angle (Fr., Whitehall, Ohio/Whitehall-Yearling). Fryer went to third on a fly out by Rabin. In the fourth, Bourquin led off with a single and went to second on a wild pitch. He was stranded there on a foul out, a line drive and a strikeout. In total they left six runners on base, three in scoring position.
Luyster got the loss in his final game as a Buckeye to fall to 7-4. He allowed six runs (three earned) on five hits in 4.1 innings. He struck out one and walked none. Dan Barker (Fr., Dayton, Ohio/Northmont) pitched 2.2 innings allowing only two hits before giving way to Jeffry Carroll (So., Columbus, Ohio/Bishop Watterson), who pitched the final inning.
Anthony Sullivan, a first-team All-Big East selection, picked up the win for St. John's to improve to 8-3 on the year. He pitched a complete game and allowed one unearned run on six hits with eight strikeouts and one walk.
St. John's out-hit Ohio State 8-6 and the Buckeyes, who had the best fielding percentage in the Big Ten during the regular season, finished with three errors. Ohio State made good contact with the bat Sunday, but hit directly at fielders and could not string hits together. The Buckeyes had only one inning with two hits and that was in the sixth, when they scored their only run.
The fourth-seeded Buckeyes went 1-2 in the Corvallis Regional. After dropping a ninth-inning, 4-3 heartbreaker to host Oregon State Friday night, Ohio State eliminated second seeded Virginia 2-1 in walk-off fashion. St. John's (41-17) moves on to play top-seeded Oregon State (43-9) in the regional championship needing to beat the Beavers twice to move to super regional play. Oregon State needs only one victory to face the winner of the NCAA Long Beach Regional next week in a best-of-three series.
Ohio State finishes its season with a 40-20 overall record. It was the 10th 40-win season in the 18 season of head coach Bob Todd, who now is 726-375-2 at Ohio State and 850-446-2 in 22 career seasons.