Aaron

1-2-3 for us and its 1-0 to 8th.

Macciochi works around it and we are six outs away now. Seventh inning stretch.

Theres a hit but a play that has to be made on a tough chopper to second under glove for single.

Macciocchi into pitch 7th. I assume he will go for 3 inning save. I don't want Litwicki closing as he is only guy besides Sommer who has struggled on mound lately. Could also use 2 from him and try to let Tucker close which would work.

1-2-3 we go and we still can't hit any pitchers besides the one inning. 9 outs to hold on to precarious 1-0 lead.

Second straight clean inning for Bothwell. Big question is can you hang on to the 1-0 for 9 more outs and do you feel any better if team has same issues but wins 1-0? Both are big questions where I am not sure answer is yes.

Richardson though has worst at bat of season maybe with three pitch strikeout and lead them loaded. Finally had baserunners last two innings and loaded bases each time but only gotten one run out of it. Still 1-0 after 5.

What a bad mistake by the OSU SS. Will be an infield hit but he hesitated and looked at second where he had no chance for third out instead of going straight to first and in meantime Ashley reaches.

Bothwell just as good as Mudungo

Bothwell in for fifth.

Colopy looks fooled completely for a K and we get just the one. Should of been at least two, if not a lot more but at least we are on board. 1-0 after 4.

Toetz takes second on steal.

A groundball that could of gotten through (although by no means should of absolutely) did not and its a FC at second.

Even when a run happens it is not quite how it should be. Barr hit one in the hole for what should of been a two run single. Instead it is stopped between third and short for an out at third. We get a run but instead of no outs 2-0 and 1st and 2nd, its one out 1-0 and first and second. OSU brings in a lefty who has a higher ERA but who throws almost identical to last guy in style.

Richardson hit by pitch. Bases loaded no outs. First time I have seen us battle a pitcher or work counts since Rutgers-Nebraska weekend.

Double steal works after a failed bunt. Second and third no outs.

Ashley finally works a terrific at bat and is patient for another single. Amazing what happens when you battle the pitcher, something we have not done last two weeks enough.

Houston finally singles to open up 4th. Only guy who has gotten better and hit at all last two weeks.

Really to bad Mudungo is not set up to throw 100 pitches and complete a game because he absolutely could complete the game if he did. Less than 40 pitches through 4 innings. Could easily be our Friday starter and really good at it by next year, but not there yet. I have no doubt Mudungo, Stahl and Bothwell will be excellent weekend starters next year given how pitching develops here and arms we have. Offense is the much bigger problem that needs serious fixing.

Hopkins is hurt on ball fouled off him. He is the epitome of the offensive houdini whole team has done last 2.5 weeks. Went from red hot to not hitting at all just like rest of team. Able to stay in game though.

It goes without saying but the starter Coupet (and he was not originally intended to start but a guy named Smith) already has best game of year with 3 perfect innings and 7 strikeouts first time through order. I have got nothing left to say.

OSU got screwed on a groundball that was was an infield single called for an out. Similar to bunt against Illinois last week where they screwed us. It was that bad. OSU has missed a bunch of HR's by very little that have turned into flyouts. It's still 0-0 after 2.5 but once again OSU battling at plate. We are not. Strikeouts, impatience and no hard contact.

Every guy has struck out. This guy is a lefty with wicked off speed stuff. Similar to Denham against Michigan. It does not matter who teams throw at us. We can't hit anyone. It's that simple. Serious adjustments are needed to plate approach in offseason. Its that simple. We did it in 2017 after exact same 2016 as this year. Have to do it again or else Held can take a hike.

We make another mistake with a hit for a bloop double by OSU. After going to third on groundout, OSU returned the favor by getting picked off at third on attempted squeeze. OSU doing bullpen day of course and through five batters we still can't touch him. It's not the pitchers anymore. It's us.

Tomorrow we face a lefty who has not started yet this year and has been a bullpen guy. He will not complete the game against us no matter how good he is, but the Illinois situation last week is certainly possible where multiple mediocre pitchers befuddle us.