FROM PRESS RELEASE
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Team Scarlet took a 2-0 lead in Ohio State baseball’s Scarlet and Gray World Series by winning Game 2, 9-5, Tuesday at Bill Davis Stadium. The best-of-five series continues at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. The Diamond Club, the baseball program’s booster organization, will hold a picnic prior to the game starting at 5 p.m. Admission to the park is free.
Freshman pitcher Alex Wimmers started for the Scarlet and picked up the win, allowing just one earned run over four innings. He retired eight batters in a row from the middle of the first to the top of the fourth inning.
“Wimmers pitched well,” Bob Todd, Ohio State coach, said. “I’m pleased with the way he played. He mixed his pitches, he threw strikes and he kept the batters off balance.”
Wimmers started slowly, giving up a leadoff double to Cory Kovanda in the first inning and walking the second batter he faced, J.B. Shuck. Kovanda would eventually score an unearned run, but Wimmers got through the inning by throwing a double play ball. He would then retire the next eight batters he faced and would finish his outing by allowing just three hits and one earned run. He struck out four and walked two.
A potent Scarlet offensive attack supported the freshman Wimmers with four players getting two hits apiece – Cory Ruppert, Ben Toussant, Ryan Dew and Matt Streng. Toussant, Dew and Justin Miller all had two RBI as well.
Trailing 1-0, Team Scarlet roared back in the top of the third, scoring five runs off three hits and three walks. The walks came consecutively to load the bases with one out. Ryan Meade hit a sac fly to score the first run and then Miller lined a two-out, two-run single to right that scored Ruppert and Tony Kennedy. Toussant followed with a two-run home run to left centerfield.
Ryan Dew led off the fourth inning with a solo home run to right center to make the score 6-1.
Team Gray chipped away at the lead with a run in the fourth and another in the fifth to close to within 6-3, but the Scarlet came back with two more in the sixth to take an 8-3 lead. Streng doubled down the leftfield line to open the inning, moved to third on a fielder’s choice and scored on Ruppert’s double to right center. Ruppert then scored on a single by Tony Kennedy.
The Scarlet made it 9-3 in the seventh as Toussant doubled to right center and scored on a single by Dew.
The Gray came right back their half of the seventh, loading the bases with nobody out. Zach Hurley drove one run home on a towering single to right centerfield. Only one run scored, though, as the runners could not advance further thinking the ball would be caught. A double play ball followed that scored one more run. Pitcher Brad Hays got the final out on ground out and the Scarlet is now one game away from the coveted fall intra-squad title and a fine meal of steak and ribs.
Josh Edgin started and took the loss for the Gray. He pitched 3.2 innings and gave up six runs, all of them earned, and six hits. J.B. Shuck and Zach Hurley had a pair of hits and Shuck and Cory Kovanda each scored a pair of runs to lead the Gray attack.
