OLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio State and No. 22 Minnesota played 18 innings of softball on Saturday over the course of six hours and when it ended, the Buckeyes and Gophers had split a doubleheader in Leesburg, Fla. Ohio State is 2-2 on the year and closes out in opening-weekend with two games tomorrow vs. Nebraska (3:30 p.m. and 6:15 p.m.).
The first game of the day featured an 11-inning marathon that resulted in a 2-1 Ohio State win. Senior Payton Buresch went 10.1 innings without giving up an earned run and Kaitlyn Coffman plated what proved to be the winning run on a RBI double in the top of the 11th. Freshman Allison Smith closed out the game with the first save of her young career.
Minnesota earned an 8-0 win in the second game of the day, getting a six shutout innings from starting pitcher Autumn Pease. The star of the game for the Buckeyes at the plate was Mariah Rodriguez, who went three for three with a triple.
Game One: Ohio State 2, Minnesota 1 (11 innings)
Fans who love a pitchers dual got everything they wanted and more with Ohio State’s Payton Buresch and Minnesota Amber Fisher dueling in the circle.
Buresch went 10.1 innings and didn’t give up an earned run with five strikeouts while scattering five hits. She got a key assist from freshman Allison Smith, who recorded the final two outs – both on strikeouts – to earn the first save of her career.
Neither team was able to get a run on the scoreboard until the 10th when Niki Carver broke a scoreless tie with a two-out bloop single to right center that scored Ashley Prange, who had started the inning on second base per international tiebreaker rules.
As the home team in the doubleheader opener, Minnesota batted in the bottom of the 10th and came through with a two-out RBI single by Katie Kemmetmueller. Unfazed, Ohio State punched back in the top of the 11th, getting a RBI double off the bat of Kaitlyn Coffman to go ahead 2-1. And this time, the Buckeyes wouldn’t surrender that advantage.
In the bottom of the 11th, Minnesota’s Emily Hansen sacrificed Megan Dray to third, and following a walk, the Buckeyes put Smith in the circle, who emphatically finished off the game with back to back strikeouts.
Coffman finished the game 2-for-4 at the plate. Other Buckeye hits came from Carver and Meggie Otte.
The game was Ohio State’s longest in nearly 12 years, since a 6-5 11-inning win over Wisconsin on April 18, 2009.
Game Two: Minnesota 8, Ohio State 0
The Gophers would bounce back in the nightcap, jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning and then tacking on one in the second, one in the fourth, two in the sixth and two more in the seventh.
Second baseman Mariah Rodriguez went three for three at the plate for the Buckeyes, including a two-out triple in the fifth inning. She added a single in the third inning and in infield single in the seventh. Taylor Pack and Tegan Corteletti also had multi-hit games.
After Minnesota went ahead 2-0, Ohio State led off the bottom of the second with Meggie Otte’s single to second base. A fly out and 5-4-3 double play ended the inning, however. The Gophers made the score 3-0 in the second inning thanks to a MaKenna Partain RBI single and tacked on one more in the fourth inning via a sacrifice fly.
Ohio State had base runners on in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings. The Buckeyes even loaded the bases in the bottom of the seventh after Pack (single), Carley Gaskill (hit by pitch) and Rodriguez (single) all reached. The game ended, however, after a fly out to center field and a fielder’s choice.
