Baseball falls after big Ohio St. first inning

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio State avenged an early season loss to the Marshall baseball team by knocking off the Thundering Herd, 7-4, on Wednesday night at Bill Davis Stadium.  Marshall sits at 20-22 overall on the season, while OSU improves to 23-13.

Kirby Pellant and Josh Valle each ripped a pair of hits, but a five-run bottom of the first inning proved to be the difference in the non-conference tilt.  The multi-hit effort for Pellant was his 13th of the season.

OSU pitcher Brett McKinney (3-3) fired the first five innings without allowing a hit, while walking two and striking out one.

In the five-run first, OSU used six hits, capped off by a three-run homer from Corey Rupert.

The Buckeyes added two runs in the bottom of the seventh to hold a 7-0 lead.

In the eighth, Marshall broke up the shutout bid by the OSU pitching staff.  James Lavinskas lined a pinch-hit single to center with one down in the frame. 

Justin Maynard entered the contest as a pinch runner for Lavinskas and promptly stole second and then advanced to third on an infield single from Pellant.  Maynard raced home on wild pitch to avoid the Herd being blanked for the second time this season.

Marshall made the game interesting in the top of the ninth by smacking five hits en route to three runs, but the Buckeyes were able to close the door to earn the non-conference win to split the season series.  Marshall beat a then-ranked No.17 OSU squad 17-1 at the Arby's Classic in Knoxville, Tenn., on March 13.

Rhett Stafford lined a pinch-hit two-run single, while Eric Semeniuk also provided a RBI base hit off the bench to help account for the runs in the last inning for the Herd.

Ben Frith (2-2) was saddled with the loss, as the lefty could not escape the top of the first against an aggressive Buckeyes lineup.

Ryan Kiel did an excellent job out of the Herd bullpen, surrendering just one hit in 3.1 innings and fanning three. 

The senior lefty has allowed just one run to score over his last 8.2 innings in a total of four appearances.  Kiel has given up just three hits with five strikeouts during that span.