The Ohio State Buckeyes battled, but one error cost them a win against the Washington Huskies.
There are tough ways to lose baseball games, and then there is what happened to the Ohio State Buckeyes in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament early on Wednesday morning.
The Buckeyes had battled all game long against the Washington Huskies. Every time Washington scored, the Buckeyes would answer back to keep the game close or tie it up.
Ohio State had the Huskies down to their final strike in the top of the ninth inning when they were facing center fielder Mic Paul. Paul was down to his final strike with men on first and second.
Paul launched a ball behind home plate that was a "big league popup," and Buckeyes' catcher Mason Eckleman had a beat on it initially, and then it started to drift. Eckleman dove to try and snag it and had the catch nearly 95 percent complete.
When his glove hit the ground, the ball squeaked out of his leather onto the turf.
Just as the baseball gods would have it, the very next pitch was ripped down the right field line, and it nestled up into the wall in the right field corner. Both runners scored while Paul dove into third base with a two-RBI triple that was unearned.
The Buckeyes went from being off the field with a chance to walk it off to being down two and in a massive hole.
Ohio State would threaten in the bottom half of the ninth, but it would prove not to be enough. Buckeyes star Henry Kaczmar was up with two outs, probably Ohio State's most reliable hitter, and he went down swinging.
The result was an unfair representation of the game that Ohio State played against Washington. Every time Washington scored, the Buckeyes answered in the bottom half of that inning, except for the ninth.
They got clutch hits from nearly everyone on the team. Kaczmar also set the Buckeyes single season record for doubles in a season with 26.
Up next for Ohio State is a trip to the elimination bracket. They will now have to survive the elimination bracket to earn the right to take on one of the top dogs.
They will play Rutgers tomorrow night, who just got throttled by Michigan earlier in the day. If they win that, they will play the loser of Washington vs. Michigan and become the fourth qualifier with the right to face Nebraska.
It's an uphill battle for the Buckeyes the rest of the way.
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