The Ohio State baseball team had its worst start to Big Ten play since Franklin Roosevelt was president. In the end, it did not matter.
The Buckeyes defeated sixth-seeded Minnesota 14-6 Sunday afternoon in Champaign, Ill., to capture their third Big Ten tournament title in four years and qualify for the 64-team NCAA tournament.
In the title game, OSU jumped to a 6-0 lead after two innings, the big blow a three-run home run by senior left fielder Steve Caravati in the second. OSU added another four runs in the fourth inning to take an 11-1 lead and essentially end it. Sophomore left-hander Dan DeLucia threw five innings for the win to improve to 5-5.
The Buckeyes became the first five-seed to win the title in tournament history. OSU won its first three games to get to the championship games of the double-elimination tournament, giving them two chances to win.
The Buckeyes were one pitch away from winning the title in Saturday night's first championship game, but Minnesota stunned the Buckeyes 4-3 when freshman second baseman Joe Maciej hit a walk-off, two-run home run off OSU freshman reliever Rory Meister with two outs and two strikes in the ninth.
The Buckeyes won the tournament in 2002 and 2003, and Minnesota was trying to defend its title.
The championship games will be re-broadcast on CSTV, starting at 7 p.m. Monday.
Full coverage from Champaign, and the Buckeyes' matchups in the NCAA tournament, can be found in Tuesday?s copies of The Lantern.
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