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Baseball
Red-Hot Redhawks Burn Buckeyes 12-4
By Tony Gerdeman

COLUMBUS, Ohio — On a night when the wind was blowing out, Miami (OH) (15-14) came into Bill Davis Stadium and plated 12 runners on 13 hits while holding the Buckeyes (10-12, 2-1) to just five hits and four runs.

Redhawks starting pitcher Ryan Meyers was making just his third appearance of the year, having previously only pitched 2.1 innings this season. He went five strong innings, giving up two hits and one unearned run.

John Kuchno got the start for the Buckeyes, but got in trouble early, giving up five runs (four earned) in the first two innings. He lasted only three innings, but did strikeout five batters while he was out there. The loss moves Kuchno to 0-3 on the season.

“He's just not sharp," said Buckeye coach Greg Beals of Kuchno's struggles.

"John's got good stuff. His fastball is in the 90s, he's got tilt on his breaking ball. John's gotta have as much confidence in himself as we have in him as a coaching staff. We think this guy's got potential. He's got to get that in his own mind, and attack the strike zone a little bit better, and not get into the walks or get into bad counts.”

Dean Wolosiansky took over for Kuchno in the fourth inning, but struggled even more than the Buckeye starter, lasting only 1.2 innings. He gave up five hits and three earned runs in the process.

As potent as the Redhawk bats were on the night, the Buckeye bats were just as nominal.

Ohio State's offense was off-balance the entire game, and it started early on when it came to facing a pitcher that they had no information on.

“We didn't have any report on him, so that didn't help," said Beals.

"But it didn't take very long to figure out what his M.O. was going to be. He threw the breaking ball quite a bit. I don't think the lack of information on him was that big of a factor. It was more of him out-executing us. We weren't able to get quality swings off on good pitches.”

You can sometimes overcome a lack of pitching, or a lack of hitting, but if you also fall victim to a lack of fielding, almost all hope is lost. The Buckeyes had to deal with all three on Wednesday night.

“We didn't play very good defense," Beals explained.

"We didn't help on defense, we walked guys early in the game. We set them up early. And we didn't hit. They threw a guy that was an off-speed type of guy and he kept us off balance. We just didn't hit enough. It's really bad when you look at the line and you've got as many errors as you do hits. That's not a good baseball game any way you cut it up.”

Because of the errors, only seven of Miami's twelve runs were earned, and the four runs over the final four innings for the Redhawks were all unearned.

The Buckeye bats never had a chance because of the Buckeye gloves. But even when presented with opportunity, those bats struggled to come through.

“We didn't do the big stuff tonight," said Beals. "We didn't hit it well enough and we didn't catch it well enough.”

Ohio State did tack on two runs in the ninth when pinch-hitter Jacob Hayes doubled home Matt Streng, and then came home on a wild pitch two batters later.

While the loss won't be felt in the conference standings, it will be felt in other ways. Greg Beals will make sure of it.

“The one lesson that we take is that you've got to be ready to play everyday," he said.

"We had an in-state school come in here and kick our butts in every aspect of the game today, and that's a shame because every time they put this uniform on, they're representing a great university, and they've got to be prepared to that. And I didn't feel like we were prepared to do that today.”

But they won't dwell on it too long, because that's not how things work.

“We'll start the recovery process tomorrow in practice. We'll be ready for the Big Ten. We've got a big weekend with IU. As baseball players, it's what we do.”

Box Score

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