Baseball Buckeyes take 2 of 3 from Northwestern

Ohio State's baseball team began its Big Ten season with a bang last weekend, taking 2 of 3 games from the Northwestern Wildcats at Bill Davis Stadium.

Buoyed by Big Ten Player of the Week, catcher Greg Solomon, who batted .600 (6-10) for the weekend with four RBIs and two doubles, the Buckeyes won Friday's game 7-2 and Sunday's game 15-14. Their only defeat coming Saturday, 7-3.

Friday's contest was the Big Ten opener for both teams. Paced by Solomon's 3-3, two RBI day at the plate and starting pitcher Drew Rucinski's five strikeouts and one earned run yielded in six strong innings of work, the Buckeyes turned a 7th inning 2-1 deficit into a 7-2 victory behind four runs in the 7th and two more in the 8th. The victory was the first conference win for first-year head coach Greg Beals.

Saturday was unkind to the Buckeyes, who fell behind Northwestern 3-0 after the first half-inning of the game. The 1st inning deficit proved too much for the Buckeyes to over-come, as they only managed to cut the lead to 3-2, before surrendering two runs to the Wildcats in the both the 6th and 7th innings. The Buckeyes offense left the bases loaded on two separate occasions and wasted second baseman Ryan Cypret's heroic 4-5 day at the plate. Cypret accounted for four of the Buckeyes' nine total hits on the afternoon.

Sunday's clash proved to be the most exciting game of the weekend as the Buckeyes and Wildcats combined for 29 runs, 37 hits, 12 pitchers and two home runs. Eight of nine Buckeyes starters recorded hits on the day, including six with multi-hit games. All nine Wildcat starters recorded hits including seven with multi-hit performances.

The Buckeyes took a 14-7 lead after plating five runs in the 6th inning, however the Wildcats would not go away as they managed three runs in the 7th before tying the game in the top of the 9th on a two-out, three-run homer by Northwestern pitcher Jack Havey.

The Buckeyes won the game in the bottom of the 9th however, after Northwestern reliever Paul Snieder committed a throwing error on a Tim Wetzel sacrifice bunt, which allowed the Buckeyes' Brian DeLucia to score the winning run all the way from first base.

The weekend series pushed the Buckeyes' record to 10-11 (2-1) and dropped Northwestern to 8-15 (1-2).

The Buckeyes will play the Miami (OH) Redhawks on Wednesday at 6:35 p.m. EST at Bill Davis Stadium, in Columbus.