After dropping its season opener, the Ohio State baseball team rebounded for its first victory of the year, 4-1 over Pittsburgh thanks to a dominating performance from starting pitcher Seth Lonsway.
The right-hander made it difficult for the Panthers’ bats to get any kind of offense going. He had a shaky first inning — giving up one run — but he settled down from there. All told, he threw six innings of one-hit ball — striking out twelve hitters along the way to earn the win. Bayden Root came on in relief and pitched another strong three innings. He struck out six and allowed just one hit to nail things down.
There wasn’t a ton of offense for the Buckeyes, but enough to get the job done. After Pittsburgh plated a run on a couple of walks and a two-out RBI single in the top of the first, Ohio State answered. It got a big ground out RBI from Brent Todys after Nate Karaffa and Dillon Dingler both had hits.
FINAL | Yanni reaches on an error but Root rolls a 1-4-3 double play to end it as the Buckeyes pick up their first win of 2020, topping Pittsburgh 4-1!#GoBucks pic.twitter.com/M7cbt85g8n
— Ohio State Baseball (@OhioStateBASE) February 16, 2020
The Buckeyes then took the lead for good in the 4th on back-to-back doubles by Connor Pohl and Zach Dezenzo to make it 2-1. Ohio State loaded the bases then but couldn’t plate any more runs in the inning.
It did get two insurance runs in the bottom of the 6th inning though and that would be more than enough.
With the win, Ohio State improves to 1-1 on the young season and will take on Indiana State at 11:30 AM Sunday.
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