Marshall Baseball-Ohio State: The Hit Parade

April Fools Day was no joke for the Marshall Thundering Herd baseball team as they triumphed over No. 18 Ohio State. The only fools on the field that day appeared to be the nationally ranked Buckeyes as the Herd easily took the win in a 14-to-3 shellacking.

Marshall came off of a limited offensive performance against Kentucky when the Herd was only able to register three hits. What a difference a day makes, as the Herd exploded with 21 hits against the Buckeyes during the contest in Columbus.

The Herd last had a 20-hit performance in 2008 when they were able to light up the scoreboard against Ohio University.

A single by junior third baseman Josh Valle started the Marshall onslaught in the second inning. A sacrifice bunt from Brandon Casamassima advanced Valle to second base. Thor Meeks made it on base on a walk followed by a double from Rhett Stafford that brought Valle around to score.

A sacrifice fly from shortstop Kenny Socorro brought Meeks in and allowed Stafford to advance to third. The Buckeyes began to feel the pressure.

A wild pitch from Theron Minium allowed Stafford to come around for Marshall's third run of the contest. Minium was able to get out of the heat soon as Adam Yeager was caught in his attempt to steal second after reaching base on a single to center field.

The troubles were far from over for Ohio State as the Herd got back to work with a Ben Jurevicius triple to lead off the inning. Catcher Victor Gomez hit a single to bring the run in before being thrown out in his steal attempt. T

he Herd would rally from a second-out hole after Valle was walked and Casamassima drilled a double to left field.

The stage was set for Meeks as he came to bat and hammered the ball beyond the wall at right center field. After the Meeks home run Marshall was on top 7-0 over the Buckeyes and continued their work with a Stafford double.

Soccoro followed up with an infield single putting the Buckeyes back in trouble once more. Minium was able to work his way out of the jam again inducing a fly ball to end the inning.

Ohio State was finally able to get onto the scorecard in the bottom of the third when Tyler Engle recorded an infield single and advanced to third on a pair of wild pitches. Freshman pitcher Mike Mason regained his composure for the Herd and closed out the inning safely.

Marshall continued to impose their will on the Buckeyes with a three-run fourth inning. A single from Nate Lape started things off and an RBI double from Gomez scored the first run of the inning. After a pair of miscues, the bases were loaded for Rhett Stafford who capitalized on the problems with a two-RBI single.

Ohio State managed to escape the fourth and quietly make it through their half of the inning. The Herd's batters continued to light up the stat sheet in the fifth with a single from Eric Semeniuk and another by Valle. Semeniuk was on third when Casamassima returned to the plate and registered an RBI single.

The Buckeyes finally managed to strike back in the bottom of the fifth with Matt Streng making it to second on a Herd error. Engle was walked and a Shawn Forsythe single brought Streng in and put Engle in scoring position.

Ohio State was able to load the bases before a bunt down the first baseline was picked up by Casamassima to end the inning.

In the bottom of the sixth the Buckeyes managed to tack on two more runs to make the score 11-3 in favor of the Herd. The rally never came for Ohio State who would not score anymore runs in the contest.

Marshall finished the game with a pair of runs during the eighth and a final run in the last frame.

Marshall improved to 12-15 on the season, while the Buckeyes fell to 21-5. The Herd finished the contest with 14 runs, 21 hits, and two errors while the Buckeyes only managed three runs, 11 hits, and one error.