The Ohio State baseball team has a lot of work still to do, but there are signs that it is starting to figure things out a little bit after a disappointing start to the Big Ten season.
On Wednesday, OSU stepped outside of the conference to host the Dayton Flyers and won by way of comeback variety, 8-7, to improve to 20-17 overall.
It didn’t take long for the Buckeyes to get on the board first. In the bottom of inning No. 1, OSU scored two runs thanks to an RBI double by Kade Kern, followed by a sacrifice fly by Tyler Pettorini.
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The Flyers struck back with four runs in the top of the third inning to make it 4-2, then tacked on another couple of runs in the fourth inning to go up 6-2. The score would say that way until the bottom of the seventh inning when OSU began the climb back.
Mitchell Okouley scored on a groundout by Trey Lipsey to make it 6-3, then Cole Andrews got hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to cut the deficit to 6-4.
Dayton got another run in the top of the eighth, but that only set the stage for the final comeback. In the bottom of the inning, Matthew Graveline drew a walk with the bases loaded to pull to within two runs at 7-5. Marcus Ernst then hit a two-run single to tie things up at 7-7. That was followed by another walk with the bases loaded to Henry Kaczmar to give the Buckeyes the 8-7 lead.
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Pitcher Jonah Jenkins then came in to shut the door for Ohio State in the top of the ninth inning, and the Buckeyes went home happy with a three-game season sweep of Dayton.
OSU will get back into conference play this weekend with a three-game series against Penn State.
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