Eric Fryer knocked in the winning run in the bottom of the ninth to give the Buckeyes a 2-1 victory and keep them alive in the NCAA tournament.

June 4, 2005

CORVALLIS, Ore. - With the score knotted at one in the bottom of the ninth, Ohio State catcher Eric Fryer delivered a two-out single up the middle to score Jason Zoeller and give the Buckeyes a 2-1 victory over Virginia Saturday eliminating the second seeded Cavaliers from the NCAA Corvallis Regional.

Ohio State starter Dan DeLucia (So., Columbus, Ohio/Bishop Watterson) retired Virginia in order in the top of the inning before Zoeller, a sophomore from Verona, Pa. (Shady Side Academy) reached on a fielding error by Cavalier third baseman Ryan Zimmerman to open the Buckeye ninth. Wes Schirtzinger (So., Westerville, Ohio/Westerville North) bunted him to second and then after a pop out, Paul Farinacci (Sr., Westlake Village, Calif./Agoura) sent him to third with a single to shallow left. And then facing a 1-1 count, the freshman backstop from Reynoldsburg, Ohio (Reynoldsburg), singled up the middle lifting the Buckeyes to the one-run victory. The one-run victory was the team's 10th of the season in 16 such games, including last night's 4-3 loss to Oregon State in the bottom of the ninth.

The Buckeyes move on in the loser's bracket, while Virginia, the seventh-place team in the Atlantic Coast Conference, was sent home. Ohio State awaits the loser of Saturday night's winner's bracket game between the top-seeded Beavers and No. 3 seed St. John's.

The game was quite a battle between starting pitchers. DeLucia retired the first 11 batters of the game before Zimmerman reached on a bunt single down the third base line. DeLucia got Sean Doolittle to pop up in foul territory to end the fourth inning. He fanned Brandon Guyer to open the fifth before Scott Head singled up the middle to become the second Cavalier base runner. DeLucia coaxed two ground outs to get out of the inning.

The Buckeyes had two base runners in the first four innings, both in the form of Mike Rabin (Sr., West Chester, Ohio/Lakota East). The Ohio State centerfielder reached on an infield single with one out in the first and stole second but two fly outs stranded him there. Virginia starter Jeff Kamrath sat down eight batters before he walked Rabin to begin the fourth inning. Rabin stole second and went to third on the second ground of the inning, where he was stranded after another ground out.

Schirtzinger, who led Ohio State with two hits against Oregon State Friday night, led off the fifth inning with a base hit up the middle. He stole second and went to third on a wild pitch before scoring on a single to shallow center field by Matt Angle (Fr., Whitehall, Ohio/Whitehall-Yearling) to give the Buckeyes a 1-0 lead.

But the lead was short lived as Virginia was able to turn a lead-off double into the tying run in the top of the sixth. Kyle Werman doubled just fair down the left field line and then scored when Tim Henry followed with a single up the middle. Henry was nabbed on a fielder's choice by Matt Street. DeLucia failed to pick off Street at first and his errant throw sent Street to second. He got to third on a wild pitch and was stopped at home on a fielder's choice to first base by Zimmerman. Doolittle flied out to center to leave Zimmerman on base.

The Buckeyes left their second runner at third base in the bottom of the seventh. After a ground out and a fly out, Farinacci singled to center and went to third on a single to right-center field by Eric Fryer (Fr., Reynoldsburg, Ohio/Reynoldsburg). Angle grounded out to second to strand runners at the corners. Ohio State went in order in the eighth.

DeLucia retired 10 of the final 11 batters he faced, letting only Henry to reach with two-out in the eighth when Farinacci could not come up with a sharply hit grounder to first. DeLucia improved to 6-5 on the year in going the distance for the third time this season. He limited Virginia to one run on four hits and had only two strikeouts against no walks. Jeff Kamrath, a first-team All-ACC selection, was tagged with the loss to fall to 9-5 on the year. He allowed the two Ohio State runs on seven hits. The Buckeyes had to overcome two errors, while Virginia committed one that led to the winning run in the ninth.

Farinacci was 2-for-3, while Fryer finished 2-for-4 with the winning RBI. Fryer also had the winning RBI in the bottom of the eighth in the regular season finale against Minnesota gave Ohio State a 6-5 win. Angle had the other RBI for Ohio State Saturday against Virginia in going 1-for-4. Rabin and Schirtzinger also had hits for the Buckeyes, which improved to 40-19 on the year. This is the 10th time in coach Bob Todd's 18 seasons at Ohio State that his team has won at least 40 games in a season.

The Buckeyes meet the loser of Saturday night's game between Oregon State and St. John's Sunday at 4:05 p.m., EDT. Should the Buckeyes win that game they would play in the championship game Sunday at 9:05 p.m. and would have to force and win a second championship game Monday at 5:05 p.m. to advance to a super regional for the third time since 1999. All Ohio State postseason games will be broadcast by NPR 820 (WOSU-AM) and on the Internet at www.wosu.org.