The Ohio State Buckeyes' season came to a close on Thursday Night against their rival, the Michigan Wolverines
Ohio State's baseball season officially comes to a close after a very fun, yet disappointing loss to the Michigan Wolverines.
Michigan got quick revenge on the Buckeyes from their three-game sweep just last week with a 3-0 win on Thursday night. While the Buckeyes came up short, the game was extremely competitive and driven by the two starting pitchers.
The Buckeyes got a strong 7.2 innings from their starter, Gavin Kuzniewski, who finished by just giving up one hit and surrendering four walks, which totaled two earned runs. The third run came across from closer Ryan Zamora, who came in for 1.1 innings in relief.
Kuzniewski hurled 122 total pitches and truly emptied the tank for the Buckeyes.
It was like looking in a mirror for Michigan's starter Shane Brinham, who went for a 124 pitch complete game shutout. In his performance, he struck out 11 Buckeyes while surrendering just five hits.
Both starters were strong; Michigan was the only side that could scratch across a run.
Trailing by 2 runs in the top of the eighth, the Buckeyes were trying to hang around, but the ultimate nail in their coffin was a two-out error by shortstop Henry Kaczmar, who was the best player on the Buckeyes defense.
Similar to how the Buckeyes lost to Washington, the error was the catalyst for the runs they surrendered. Instead of having a 1-2-3 inning, the next two Wolverines reached base to push a run across and all but end the Ohio State season.
While it ended in disappointing fashion, 2026 was a program-changing season for Ohio State. They went from a 13-37 record in 2025 to a 30-25 record this year. They established themselves as a winning program, and more importantly, Manager Justin Haire showed that he has what it takes to make the Buckeyes a winner.
The only issue for Ohio State moving forward is that the Big Ten is loaded with baseball schools.
There are three legitimate National Title candidates in the conference: UCLA, Nebraska, and USC. Each of those programs is going to make a major run at the title, and Ohio State is going to have to deal with them for years to come.
The loss stings tonight, but hopefully, soon, these Buckeyes can look back at 2026 as the year the program became a winner. They can use that as motivation to go forward and take the next step to becoming a threat at the National level.
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