UW upsets Ohio State in first Big Ten Tournament win

OMAHA, Nebraska —  The 11th-seeded University of Washington Huskies (24-31) kept their postseason alive as they earned an 8-6 victory over the sixth seeded Ohio State Buckeyes (30-24) Tuesday in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament. 

Both the Huskies and the Buckeyes traded two-run blows throughout the game, according to a release from UW Athletics, but ultimately UW found themselves able to gain the advantage in the bottom of the ninth.  

Neither team scored in the first two innings, but UW got on the board first in the top of the third with two runs on two bases-loaded walks. This put the Huskies at 17-9 when scoring before their opponent.  

Ohio State quickly responded in the bottom of the third inning as Lee Ellis led off with a single through the left side, followed by a walk from Grant Manrum. According to a release from Ohio State Athletics, a sacrifice fly from Alex Bemis plated Ellis to put the Buckeyes on the board and Henry Kaczmar hit a double to score Mangrum and tied up the game. 

In the fourth inning Huskies player Ethan Widler drove in a run with an RBI single down the left line and Sam DeCarlo added on another run with a sacrifice fly to once again give UW a two-run advantage. The Buckeyes were once again quick to respond as they tied up the game with two runs of their own to put the game at 4-4 in the top of the fifth. 

With a scoreless fifth inning, Casen Taggart from UW reclaimed the lead after hitting a 411-foot home run and put the game at 6-4. This was Taggart’s fifth home run of the season. 

The Buckeyes didn’t respond until the bottom of the eighth where they put up two runs to once again tie up the game. In the top of the ninth, with second and third bases filled and with Mic Paul up to bat, he popped up a 1-0 pitch behind the plate that the opposing catcher missed, turning into a foul and allowing Paul to have another chance to bat.  

Paul proceeded to drill the ball down the right field line to send both Taggart and Sam Decarlo home and put the Huskies in front by two. With the game on the line, the Huskies held down on defense and sealed their win 8-6 over the Buckeyes. 

Hayden Lewis started on the mound for UW where he threw for seven innings and had 106 pitches where he allowed four hits, four runs, two walks and six strikeouts. Gunnar Nichols and Liam Lierman combined pitching efforts in the eighth inning before Tommy Brandenburg game in to finish out the game where he forced a fly out and struck out two batters. 

Huskies player Ethan Widler was responsible for three of the team’s six hits on the day, and Paul drove in three of the Huskies’ eight runs. 

With this victory, the Huskies went on to face the number seven seed, Michigan, Wednesday evening. Results from that game were unavailable at the time of publication. 

Following Wednesday’s game, Washington will either play Ohio State again Thursday or Oregon Friday. 

BOX SCORE 

UW: 0-0-2-2-0-2-0-0-2: 8 

OSU: 0-0-2-2-0-0-0-2-0: 6