No. 24 Ohio State Welcomes Miami to Bill Davis Stadium
Buckeyes, which have the best overall record in the league at 15-6, are one of three Big Ten teams at the top of the conference standings after going 3-1 last weekend
Ronnie Bourquin leads
the Buckeyes at the
plate with a .440 batting
average.
April 4, 2006
NO. 24 OHIO STATE BUCKEYES
15-6, 3-1 Big Ten
vs.
MIAMI REDHAWKS
9-14, 1-5 MAC
Wednesday, April 5, 2006 o 6:35 p.m.
Bill Davis Stadium (Capacity: 4,450)
Columbus, Ohio>
Series History: Ohio State leads 28-15
PROBABLE PITCHING MATCHUP
Connor Graham (MU) vs.
Dan Barker (OSU)
RADIO
AM 920 WMNI
OHIOSTATEBUCKEYES.COM
GameTracker, Streaming Audio & Video
No. 24 Ohio State returns to Bill Davis Stadium for just the second time in 22 games Wednesday when it welcomes Miami (Ohio) for a 6:35 p.m. first pitch. The Buckeyes improved to 15-6 after winning three of four games at Iowa last weekend and sit at the top of the Big Ten standings, tied with Michigan State and Northwestern.
Miami comes to Columbus after losing three games to Ball State in Muncie, Ind., last weekend to fall to 9-14 overall and 1-5 in the Mid-American Conference. The RedHawks will be the third team from the MAC the Buckeyes have met. Ohio State lost 12-11 to Western Michigan, but beat Toledo 8-5 last Wednesday.
The Buckeyes continue a mini six-game home stand this weekend when they welcome Illinois, the defending Big Ten regular season champion to Bill Davis Stadium this weekend. Central Michigan will close out the home stand next Wednesday before Ohio State heads to Ann Arbor for a four-game series at Michigan.
The game will be broadcast on the new radio home for the Ohio State baseball team, AM 920 WMNI in Columbus. Randy Rhinehart and Frank Fraas will call that action. The game will be available at ohiostatebuckeyes.com.
ABOUT OHIO STATE
The Buckeyes are ranked 24th in this week's Collegiate Baseball newspaper poll released Monday. The ranking is the first since they finished the 2003 season ranked in the Top 21 of all four of the major polls after hosting Missouri State in an NCAA Super Regional. This year, Ohio State has won 13 of its last 15 games to improve to 15-6 overall.
Last week, Ohio State went 4-1. After beating Toledo 8-5 in the home opener at Bill Davis Stadium last Wednesday, the Buckeyes won three of four games from Iowa in Iowa City. Ohio State won the first, third and fourth games of the series by respective scores of 12-5, 6-4 and 15-1, with the only blemish of the week coming in game two, a 7-1 loss.
The most dominating win was the 15-1 series clincher on Sunday that kept the Buckeyes on top of the Big Ten standings with a 3-1 record. While the offense pounded out 17 hits, it was the pitching that grabbed national headlines as freshman pitcher
J.B. Shuck took a no-hitter into the eighth inning before giving up a solo home run to the lead-off batter that inning. It was the only hit allowed by Buckeye pitching. Shuck struck out eight batters in the game and turned the game over to
Dan Barker, who pitched the ninth without a hit.
Shuck leads the Big Ten with his perfect 4-0 record and 1.12 ERA. He has 26 strikeouts in 32.0 innings.
Dan DeLucia is 4-1 with a 3.09 ERA and 26 strikeouts in 43.2 innings.
Cory Luebke is the third Buckeye start with 26 strikeouts. He is 3-2 with a 3.56 ERA in 30.1 innings. As a staff, the Buckeyes lead the Big Ten with a 3.50 ERA, holding opposing batters to a .263 average.
As strong as the starting pitching has been, the offense has been even stronger. The squad has a .349 batting average, which also is tops in the league. In five games last week, the team outscored opponents 42-22. In the last 15 games, in which Ohio State has lost just twice, the squad is batting .373.
Last week in Iowa City, the team outscored the Hawkeyes 34-17 while 15 of the team's 44 hits were for extra bases. The team had nine doubles, two triples and four home runs after entering the weekend with only three round-trippers the first 17 games of the season.
Ronnie Bourquin batted .438 in the four games, going 7-for-16 with three doubles, a home run, five RBI and six runs scored. He had an .813 slugging percentage and a .500 on-base percentage. He did not strikeout in the series and drew two walks.
Jason Zoeller also had a strong series, batting .417.
Bourquin continues to pace the team with his .440 batting average, 40 hits and 28 RBI.
Eric Fryer also has 28 RBI and is batting .382 with 29 hits.
Jacob Howell is second on the team with a .420 batting average and has 37 hits, four doubles, three triples a home run and 15 RBI.
Matt Angle also is nearing .400 with his .393 batting average.
SHUCK MAKES NATIONAL HONOR ROLL
For the second time this season freshman pitcher
J.B. Shuck made the College Baseball Foundation National Honor Roll. Shuck, a left-handed pitcher from Galion, Ohio (Galion), took a no-hitter into the eighth inning in a 15-1 victory Sunday at Iowa. The Hawkeyes broke it up with a solo-home run to lead off the eighth inning, but he retired the next three batters to get out of the inning and handed the game over to a reliever who did not allow a hit in the ninth. The two pitchers combined to allow only the one hit. Shuck struck out a season-high eight batters, equaling the most by a Buckeye this season, and did not issue a walk.
Shuck also started the midweek game against Toledo, but pitched only three innings after allowing one earned run on five hits in the short start. After beating Iowa, Shuck improved to 4-0 and boasts a 1.12 ERA, the lowest in the Big Ten. Opposing hitters are batting just .161. He has allowed only four earned runs this season and also holds his own at first base, where he has made eight starts. Shuck is batting .400 in 12 games (14-for-35) with 10 RBI.
The multi-position player also made the honor roll after his first win of the season, a 4-2 win over Missouri the opening weekend of the season, when the Tigers were ranked No. 12 in the nation.
IN BIG TEN OPENERS
The Buckeyes are 12-7 in conference openers since head coach
Bob Todd arrived in Columbus prior to the 1988 season. Prior to last year's loss at Illinois, Ohio State has won six Big Ten openers. When opening league play at home, the Buckeyes are 8-4 under Todd. Since 1988, when the team is on the road to open Big Ten play it is 3-3 and at a neutral site, the team is 1-0.
ABOUT MIAMI
Miami (Ohio) is 9-14 this year after getting swept at Ball State this past weekend in a three-game conference series. The RedHawks are 1-5 in league play after taking 1-of-3 games the previous weekend to Toledo. Last week in midweek, non-conference action, Miami lost 5-3 to Xavier and beat Cincinnati 4-3 in 11 innings.
Jordan Petraitis leads Miami with a .357 batting average (30-for-84), three home runs and 16 RBI. The RedHawks, which are batting .275 as a team, have just one other everyday player batting better than .300 and that is Geoff Orr, who is batting .337 (31-for-92) with a team-best 31 hits, including five doubles. Former Ohio State pitcher
Jeffrey Carroll transferred to the Oxford, Ohio, school after last season and has played in 10 games this season and has a .314 batting average (11-for-35) with two doubles, a triple and seven RBI.
On the mound for Miami, John Ely is 3-1 with a 3.44 ERA and 37 strikeouts in 34.0 innings pitched. Keith Weiser is 2-3 with a 5.68 ERA and 29 strikeouts in 38.0 innings. Sam Shorts has started three of his eight appearances and is 1-1 with a 1.35 ERA and 13 strikeouts in 26.2 innings. The pitching staff has a 5.06 ERA and has an opposing batting average of .307.
Dan Simonds (Davidson, 1987) is 9-14 in his first season at Miami. He replaced Tracy Smith, who departed to become the head coach at Indiana after last season. Simonds was the head coach at Xavier in 2005 and guided the Musketeers to a 19-35 record in his only previous season as a head coach. Ohio State will meet Indiana April 21-23 in Bloomington.
AGAINST THE REDHAWKS
Ohio State leads the all-time series vs. Miami (Ohio) 28-15 and has won the last five in the series and seven of the last 10 after beating Miami 3-2 in the bottom of the ninth inning last year in Columbus. The first meeting in the series was in 1920 when Ohio State won 16-1. Ohio State coach
Bob Todd is 15-4 all-time against Miami, which includes four seasons the teams met when Todd coached at Kent State.
Last 10 Games vs. Miami (OSU leads 7-3) 4/10/1962W6-1H 4/14/1964W16-1A 4/10/1979L6-0A 4/10/1979L6-0A 4/8/1980L7-3H 4/19/1989W16-0H 4/24/1991W6-2A 4/29/1998W14-0H 5/8/2002W11-2H 5/17/2005W3-2H
LAST TIME VS. THE REDHAWKS
Freshman outfielder
Matt Angle came through with a one-out sacrifice fly to score
Jedidiah Stephen and give Ohio State a 3-2 ninth-inning victory over Miami (Ohio) in a non-conference thriller at Bill Davis Stadium May 17, 2005.
With the score tied 2-2 entering the bottom of the ninth inning, Stephen came through with a one-out base hit through the left side to put the winning run on base. Connor Graham, the fourth RedHawk pitcher of the game, tried to pick off Stephen at first, but an errant throw sent the Buckeye shortstop to third. Graham intentionally walked
Paul Farinacci and then loaded the bases with a second walk to
Eric Fryer.
Miami skipper Tracy Smith yanked Graham in favor of Sam Shorts and then pulled his center fielder Jason Brown for David Franco, who plugged the hole up the middle as a fifth infielder. Smith also slid right fielder Brandon Hillier over to cover center field, a configuration Angle admitted after the game to never have seen before. But the rookie connected on a 1-1 pitch and sent the ball deep to right-center field for the sacrifice that delivered Stephen.
AGAINST 2005 NCAA TOURNEY TEAMS
Miami (Ohio) is one of five teams the Buckeyes face this year that advanced to the NCAA tournament last year. Ohio State lost to Florida (10-3), beat Missouri (4-2), and lost to Illinois-Chicago (7-1) earlier this year. This is the fourth meeting against 2005 postseason teams. The lone remaining NCAA regional team the Buckeyes have yet to play is Michigan, which it will meet April 14-16 in Ann Arbor. Miami played in the NCAA Austin Regional and was 1-2, beating Quinnipiac with losses to Arkansas and Texas, which went on to win the 2005 national championship.
UP NEXT FOR THE BUCKEYES
Ohio State will play a four-game series against Illinois this weekend. The series gets underway Friday at 6:35 p.m. and continues Saturday with a doubleheader at 1:35 p.m. before concluding Sunday with a single game at 1:05 p.m. Games one, three and four will be broadcast on AM 920 WMNI.
The Illinois weekend has a different promotion each day. Friday, the first 2,500 fans will receive free schedule magnets, courtesy of Rooster. On Saturday, the first 1,000 fans will get Ohio State baseball pennants and on Sunday, the first, 1,000 fans will get a free
Nick Swisher (former Ohio State Buckeye and current Oakland A's outfielder) bobble head.
