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Ohio State Hosts Pittsburgh in Final Non-Conference Game
Final week of regular season gets underway Wednesday with fireworks, final Buck-A-Burger promotion of the season, concludes this weekend in series with Penn State
Ronnie Bourquin leads the
conference in RBI with 58.
May 16, 2006
OHIO STATE BUCKEYES
32-17, 16-11 Big Ten
vs.
PITTSBURGH PANTHERS
20-28, 8-16 Big East
May 17, 2006 o 6:35 p.m.
Bill Davis Stadium (Capacity: 4,450)
Columbus, Ohio
SERIES HISTORY
Ohio State leads 15-0
PROBABLE OHIO STATE STARTER
TBA
RADIO
AM 920 WMNI
OHIOSTATEBUCKEYES.COM
GameTracker and Streaming Audio
It is hard to believe it, but it already is the final week of the regular season for Ohio State, which welcomes Pittsburgh to Bill Davis Stadium for the final non-conference game on the 2006 schedule. The Buckeyes and Panthers, which have not met since 1999, will throw out the first pitch Wednesday at 6:35 p.m. The final Buck-A-Burger promotion also is Wednesday. Fireworks will follow the game.
The season concludes this weekend with a four-game Big Ten home series against Penn State. With a 16-11 ledger in conference play, Ohio State has an outside shot at a Big Ten championship, but sits two and a half games behind league leaders Northwestern and Michigan, which control their own destiny with 19-9 records. Michigan is home against Iowa, while Northwestern travels to Purdue. The Buckeyes already have clinched a spot in the Big Ten tournament.
The Pittsburgh game will be broadcast in Columbus on AM 920 WMNI. Randy Rhinehart and Frank Fraas will have the call. In addition to GameTracker and streaming audio for the game also will available at ohiostatebuckeyes.com.
1966 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM TO BE HONORED SATURDAY
Ohio State will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the 1966 national championship team this weekend at Bill Davis Stadium. The team will be honored on the field between games of the Saturday doubleheader vs. Penn State that gets underway at 1:35 p.m. The team is the last Big Ten team to win the College World Series.
ABOUT THE BUCKEYES
Ohio State is 32-17 overall and 16-11 in the Big Ten after dropping two of three games last weekend to Minnesota. The Buckeyes rode the arm of
Dan DeLucia to his ninth win of the year and backed him up with 18 hits in a 10-2 victory in the opening game of the series. The Buckeyes had just six hits in each of the final two games of the series as Minnesota won 2-1 and 12-3.
Ronnie Bourquin was 4-for-9 with four RBI to lead Ohio State against Minnesota.
Justin Miller,
Matt Angle,
Jason Zoeller and
Jacob Howell also had four hits. Bourquin continues to lead the Big Ten with a .426 batting average and with 80 hits, is within 12 of the school record of 92 set by
Steve Caravati in 2004. He has driven in 58 RBI, the most since
Jason Turner had 64 in 2000. The school record is 80 set by Dan Seimetz in 1997.
Eric Fryer is batting .391 while Angle owns a .380 batting average. Ohio State, which was second in the nation last week with a .341 team batting average, is batting .340 after the Minnesota series. National rankings will be released late Tuesday afternoon.
DeLucia allowed one run on six hits in eight innings against Minnesota. He is 9-2 this year with a 3.49 ERA ad a team-high 57 strikeouts in 90.1 innings. DeLucia is 18-10 in his career, a win total that ranks in the school's Top 20 and his 3.94 ERA ranks in the Top 15.
J.B. Shuck maintains the conference's best ERA this season at 2.10. He did not pitch against the Golden Gophers when the series finale was cancelled because of a combination of rain and travel considerations. Ohio State's team ERA is 3.73.
Cory Luebke and
Jake Hale took losses against Minnesota.
The Buckeyes have not named a starting pitcher for the Pittsburgh game.
STEPHEN, HOWELL EARN ACADEMIC HONORS
Ohio State shortstop
Jedidiah Stephen and leftfielder
Jacob Howell have been named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District IV Baseball Team. Each player earned second-team honors as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America, the organization announced May 11.
Stephen, a senior human development and family science major from Caldwell, Ohio (Shenandoah), has started all 49 games for the Buckeyes this season and is batting .342 with a team-high 18 doubles, seven home runs and a .587 slugging percentage. He has driven in 42 runs and has scored 31 runs. Howell, a red-shirt junior majoring in communication, has started all 30 games he has played this year, which has been hampered by a hamstring injury. Howell is batting .415 with 49 hits, 21 RBI and 33 runs scored. He has played in only eight of the team's last 27 games. He returned to the lineup as the DH in the Minnesota series.
The Academic All-District IV Team is made up of student-athletes from Division I schools in Alabama, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee. To be nominated, student-athletes must be a starter or important reserve and carry a cumulative grade point average of 3.20 or higher. Team members are selected by a vote of CoSIDA members within the district. The academic all-district team is part of the Academic All-America program, which is sponsored by ESPN The Magazine.
ABOUT PITTSBURGH
The Panthers are 20-28 overall and 8-16 in the Big East heading into a Tuesday game vs. Marshall. Pittsburgh won the finale vs. Connecticut after losing the first two games of the series. The win snapped a six-game losing streak.
Pittsburgh is led by second baseman Jim Negrych, who is second in the Big East with a .419 batting average. He and Jimmy Mayer led the Panthers with 70 hits. Negrych has 12 doubles and 11 home runs and has knocked in 59 RBI, while Mayer has 16 doubles, one triple and two home runs with 28 RBI. Pittsburgh is batting .279 as a team. On the mound, the pitching staff has a 4.98 ERA and is limiting opponents to a .284 batting average. Bill Muldonney is 4-4 with a team-high 86 strikeouts in 74.2 innings. Paul Nardozzi is 4-5 with 64 strikeouts, while Kyle Landis and Rob Brant each have three wins. Pittsburgh has not named a starter for Wednesday's game.
Joe Jordano (Westminster, 1985) is 251-209-2 in his ninth season at Pittsburgh and is 534-327-2 in his 19th season as a college coach.
AGAINST THE PANTHERS
Ohio State leads the all-time series with Pittsburgh 15-0. The series began in 1942 with Ohio State winning a pair of games in Columbus 12-0 and 17-0. The teams have mete just twice since 1968 with the Buckeyes winning 5-3 in 1998 and 7-1 in 1999. Those are the only two times OSU head coach
Bob Todd has faced Pittsburgh while at Ohio State. He was 2-1 against the Panthers when he was the head coach at Kent State from 1984-87.
Series History (OSU leads 15-0)
Date W/L Score Site
1942 W 12-0 H
1942 W 17-0 H
4/3/1952 W 7-5 H
4/1/1955 W 16-7 H
4/2/1955 W 11-3 H
4/2/1955 W 8-1 H
4/20/1957 W 5-1 H
4/20/1957 W 7-6 H
4/15/1960 W 5-3 A
4/16/1960 W 1-0 A
4/16/1960 W 3-2 A
4/13/1968 W 7-1 A
4/13/1968 W 5-0 A
5/7/1998 W 5-3 H
5/5/1999 W 7-1 H
