Baseball splits doubleheader against Akron

Ohio State second baseman Cory Kovanda provided an excellent example Wednesday with a walk-off sacrifice fly in the bottom of the seventh inning to score Brian DeLucia from third base.

"It always feels good to get an RBI to help the team out, you wish you could get a hit but an RBI for the team feels just as good," the sophomore infielder said.

Kovanda's sacrifice capped a come-from-behind win in the first game of a twilight double header with the Akron Zips. OSU (20-16) won game one 8-7, but came up short in game two 7-3.

"It felt good, it's not how we kind of planned out how the game would be," Kovanda said of the comeback.

Senior Tony Kennedy also had a great first game, going four-for-four with a walk. Kennedy, like the rest of the Buckeyes, seemed to have spent all his luck in the first comeback.

The unusual Wednesday double header was an attempt to make up games that OSU has lost due to poor weather.

"It puts a premium on your pitching," coach Bob Todd said. "We've had to score sometimes seven, eight, nine runs in a game to win 'em, and our pitching staff has got to step up."

In game two the poor pitching came back to bite the Bucks as they were unable to manage another comeback. Playing two games in the middle of the week was a challenge for this team.

"It's definitely a grind but you gotta be ready and know it's gonna be a long day," Kovanda said of the special difficulties of playing two.

"It's tough especially for us, because we don't have that one swing of the bat three run homer," Kennedy said.

The team's lack of power production has been an issue all year. In game two the team had 11 hits, but time and again they left men stranded on base. The team has only nine home runs in 36 games.

"We have to bail out our pitching staff sometimes, and if it's two times in one night versus Akron, you got to do it," Kennedy said.

This weekend the team heads to Evanston, Ill. to face Northwestern for a four-game series. OSU has a half-game lead on the Wildcats for fourth place in the Big 10.

Andrew Martin can be reached at martin.1633@osu.edu.

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