An eventful week in Ohio State athletics saw the men’s golf and women’s rowing teams excel when they needed to most and the men’s tennis and softball teams come up short as their seasons concluded. What follows are recaps to the past week of Olympic sport events for Ohio State student-athletes with links to the press releases.
Men’s Golf
The Ohio State men’s golf team finished 20-under par at the NCAA Myrtle Beach Regional to advance to the NCAA Championships.
The Buckeyes shot nine-under par in the final round to finish in second place behind Illinois, clinching a berth into the NCAA Championships as a No. 8 seed.
Caleb Ramirez and Will Voetsch rose to the occasion for the Scarlet and Gray, shooting a combined 17-under par and leading the program to its 47th NCAA Championships appearance, and first since 2011.
Rowing
The Ohio State rowing team finished second overall with 171 total points and three boat titles at the 2019 Big Ten Championships on Devil’s Lake May 19.
The First Varsity Four, Third Varsity Four and Second Novice Eight each defended their conference titles, while the rest of the Buckeye crews all finished in the top three of their respective races.
OSU Rowing – courtesy of Ohio State athletics.
Men’s Tennis
The No. 1 Ohio State men’s tennis team suffered a gut-wrenching 4-1 loss to No. 9 North Carolina in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championship at the USTA National Campus on May 16. Here is the link to BSB’s recap: https://bit.ly/2VQWhdP
Baseball
The Ohio State baseball team defeated Youngstown State, 7-4, at Eastwood Field on May 14.
Junior first baseman Conner Pohl and senior right fielder Dominic Canzone led the way for the Buckeyes. Pohl tallied three hits and tied the game in the fifth with a grand slam, Canzone catapulted the go-ahead, two-run homer in the top of the eighth.
Freshman left-handed reliever Mitch Milheim (1-1) claimed his first collegiate win on the road.
“We wanted to come up here and get some momentum with a win as we go into a big weekend in West Lafayette,” head coach Greg Beals said. “We got some big hits from Conner Pohl and Dominic Canzone. We put up 13 hits on the board which is a great thing to see.
“Dom’s throw to the plate to end the seventh was huge from a momentum standpoint. It was a big-time play. Dom is so much more than just a hitter with the way he plays right field for us. The arm strength is solid and the accuracy is what’s so good. I told the guys after the game, let’s take it to West Lafayette and let’s go take care of business in our conference.”
Freshman right-handed starting pitcher Garrett Burhenn tossed eight innings of scoreless baseball, while the Buckeyes crushed three homers in a 7-0 victory against Purdue at Alexander Field on May 17.
Dillon Dingler, Brent Todys and Brady Cherry each homered for the Buckeyes in an important win.
Redshirt freshman left-handed starting pitcher Seth Lonsway dominated Purdue, leading Ohio State to a 6-1 win at Alexander Field on May 18.
Lonsway struck out a career-high 14 batters in eight innings and improved to 7-4 on the season. The Celina, Ohio, native, allowed just one unearned run on two hits with two walks.
Strikeout No. 14 for Lonsway not only marked a career high for the southpaw, but it set the Ohio State single-season record for strikeouts by a pitching staff with a combined 496 strikeouts, surpassing the 2016 staff, who totaled 495.
The Ohio State baseball team completed a three-game sweep of Purdue with a 13-11 victory in West Lafayette, Ind., on May 19.
The Buckeyes started hot with a 8-1 lead following an eight-run first inning. However, the Boilermakers rallied to tie it at 9 with a seven-run fourth inning.
The Scarlet and Gray totaled a season-high six homers, including the go-ahead, three-run homer by Pohl in the sixth. Remarkably, six different Buckeyes recorded three hits in the win.
Junior left-handed reliever Andrew Magno earned the win in 5 ⅓ excellent innings of work, improving to 4-3 on the year.
Ohio State finished the regular season with a 31-24 overall record and 12-12 mark in Big Ten action, while the Boilermakers fell to 20-34 overall and 7-16 in conference play.
“It was a must-win game and our guys answered the bell,” Beals said. “We kept ourselves in contention and we got off to a big lead. Unfortunately we had a tough-fourth inning with Griffin. We went to Magno early in a must-win situation and he’s been extended before. We felt it was time to put our best go-to guy in the ball game. I’m proud of our guys. We were on a mission this weekend and we took care of business. However the chips fall in the conference with the tiebreakers, we took care of our business this weekend.”
Softball
The Ohio State softball team opened the Knoxville Regional with 1-0 victory against North Carolina behind a complete-game shutout from right handed starting pitcher Morgan Ray at Sherri P. Lee Stadium on May 17. Friday afternoon.
The shutout represented Ray’s eighth of the season. The Frenchtown, Mont., native, allowed just two hits while striking out eight batters.The senior ace retired the leadoff hitter for the Tar Heels in every inning.
The win secured the Buckeyes place in the winner’s bracket to take on No. 12 Tennessee the following day.
A rather successful season for the Buckeyes concluded with a pair of losses in the Knoxville Regional. Ohio State dropped its first outing against Tennessee, 12-4, before falling 5-3 to North Carolina in the nightcap at Sherri P. Lee Stadium May 18.
Freshman slugger Ashley Prange tallied four hits during the tournament, three of which were home runs. Senior Emily Clark batted .556 with five hits in the tourney. She reached safely in 24 consecutive contests to conclude the season, while senior Lilli Piper ended the season on a 13-game hitting streak.
