CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Ohio State's senior left fielder, Steve Caravati, held himself responsible for the Buckeyes' 4-3 loss Saturday night to Minnesota in the first of OSU's two chances to win the Big Ten baseball tournament championship. Sunday, he made sure the Buckeyes did not blow their second chance.
Caravati was 3-for-3 with a home run, a double, four RBIs and three runs, leading the Buckeyes to a 14-6 thumping over Minnesota (33-29) in the championship game at Illinois Field. The fifth-seeded Buckeyes are the lowest-seeded team to win the championship.
"We are not done yet," Caravati said. "We feel like this is just the start of the second half of our season."
Unlike Saturday night's loss, when the Buckeyes scored just three runs on 12 hits, OSU pounded out 17 hits in Sunday's win.
"We had opportunities (Saturday) night to score runs. We didn't swing the bats and didn't add on like we should have, and I think our hitters came out today and said that we were not going to allow that to happen again," coach Bob Todd said.
The victory gives OSU (39-18) its seventh Big Ten tournament championship and an automatic bid into the NCAA tournament.
Sophomore left-hander Dan DeLucia (5-5) picked up the win in his second start of the tournament. He pitched five innings, allowing three runs on five hits with two strikeouts, two walks and a hit batsman.
"I didn't have my best stuff but I knew my team needed me to step up, especially being the most important game so far of our season," DeLucia said.
Like Saturday night, the Buckeyes got lead-off singles from freshman right fielder Matt Angle and senior center fielder Mike Rabin to start the game, resulting in an 2-0 first-inning lead for OSU.
The Buckeyes continued to pound Minnesota's starting senior right-hander Cole DeVries (3-6) in the second inning when Angle hit his first career triple, scoring junior shortstop Jedidiah Stephen to make it 3-0. Caravati capped the inning with a three-run home run over the left-center field wall, putting the Golden Gophers in a six-run deficit.
The home run was Caravati's second of the tournament, fifth of the season and 26th of his career.
Minnesota sophomore right-hander Josh Oslin relieved DeVries in the third inning. OSU greeted him with a single followed by an RBI double down the right-field line by Stephen to give the Buckeyes a 7-1 lead. Then in the fourth inning, the Buckeye batters bruised Oslin for four more runs by slapping two singles and a two-run ground-rule double by Stephen, putting OSU up 11-1.
Stephen was a perfect 4-for-4 in the game with three RBIs, two runs and one walk.
The Gophers collected two runs off of DeLucia in the fifth with a double from Joe Maciej and a pair of RBI singles, making the score 11-3.
Caravati sent Oslin out of the game in the fifth when he hit his school-record-tying 13th career triple off the top of right field wall, scoring Rabin and giving the Buckeyes a commanding 12-3 lead.
Senior right-hander Mike Madsen pitched three innings for the Buckeyes, giving up two runs (one earned) on three hits with one strikeout and one hit batsman.
He turned a 14-5 lead over to senior left-hander Brett Hatcher. Hatcher started shaky, allowing two walks and an RBI single, but the senior started the celebration for OSU by striking out the final two batters.
Rabin was 4-for-4 on the day with five runs.
"Today was the day to get it done," Rabin said. "The seniors felt it was our team, that we needed to come out and play well if we were going to win this championship."
On Saturday night, the Buckeyes were just one strike away from winning the championship against the Gophers, who had already lost once in the double-elimination tournament. Instead, with a runner on first and two outs, freshman second baseman Maciej hit a two-run home run to right field, giving the Golden Gophers a 4-3 walk-off, come-from-behind victory over the Buckeyes. The home run was just the second of the season for Maciej and forced Sunday's do-or-die matchup.
"This was one of the most heartbreaking losses we've had since I've been here," Caravati said. "We had it in the palms of our hands and gave it away."
Minnesota's starting right-hander, Matt Loberg (8-5), picked up the win for the Gophers on just two days' rest. The senior pitched a complete game, allowing three runs on 12 hits with four strikeouts.
"What we did offensively and what (Loberg) did on the mound led to the disaster," Todd said.
Starting Buckeye left-hander Cory Luebke kept OSU in the game as he pitched seven innings, giving up two runs on nine hits with a tournament-high seven strikeouts.
Freshman closer Rory Meister (8-1) relieved Luebke in the eighth and gave up the two-run shot in the bottom of the ninth. It was his first loss of the season and second blown save.
The Buckeyes came out swinging against Loberg, getting back-to-back singles before an RBI sacrifice fly by Caravati, giving OSU an early 1-0 lead.
Luebke showed the importance of having a fresh arm available in the tournament as the freshman struck out three of the first four batters he faced.
OSU posted two more runs in the top of the second thanks to four consecutive singles, putting the Buckeyes up 3-0.
Luebke held the Gophers scoreless for the first five innings, but that all changed in the sixth when Minnesota hit two solo home runs off the Buckeye southpaw. Luebke would pitch one more inning before being relieved by Meister.
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