The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
OSU baseball wins Big Ten tournament
Griffan Smith and Andrew Magno combined to hold down Nebraska’s offense, and Ohio State mustered just enough of its own to beat the Cornhuskers, 3-1, in the Big Ten Tournament championship game May 26.
The seventh-seeded Buckeyes (35-25), who had to scramble to make the eight-team tournament field after sitting three games under .500 in conference play May 5, claimed the Big Ten’s automatic NCAA Tournament bid with their 11th win in 13 games.
They did it by winning in front of the overwhelmingly pro-Huskers crowd of 17,503 at TD Ameritrade Park, about 50 miles from Nebraska’s Lincoln campus.
The Buckeyes beat Minnesota 8-6 in a semifinal postponed until Sunday morning because of the Big Ten rule that doesn’t allow a game to start after 11 p.m.
They played the title game after a one-hour, 13-minute break. Nebraska (31-22) had advanced by beating Michigan on Saturday night.
Two crucial video reviews swung the championship game.
The first was in the fourth inning, when Brent Todys came home on a sacrifice fly for a 2-0 lead. Nebraska right fielder Aaron Palensky made a perfect throw to the plate, and Todys was initially called out as catcher Luke Roskam made a sweeping tag. Ohio State requested a review, and the call was overturned when video showed Roskam’s glove missed Todys’ chest just before Todys’ hand touched the plate.
In the seventh, with runners on second and third and the Buckeyes ahead 2-1, Ohio State third baseman Nick Erwin picked up Palensky’s chopper and made the throw to first in time for the third out and deny Nebraska the tying run. Nebraska asked for a review, and the call was upheld.
Hockey
FINLAND WINS WORLDS >> Marko Anttila helped lead Finland to its third world hockey title, scoring the tying and goahead goals in a 3-1 victory over Canada on Sunday.
Anttila tied it at 1 on a power play early in the second period and the Finnish captain made it 2-1 early in the third. Harri Pesonen added an insurance goal with five minutes to play.
“It’s awesome,” forward Toni Rajala said. “It’s something that you know might only happen once in your life, but even before the game it felt great. I wasn’t too nervous about it. I was enjoying it. The team played an awesome game again. We played together, played 60 minutes. Kevin was awesome in the net. We were blocking shots. They were good today, but we were a little bit better. Three goals was enough.”
Kevin Lankinen made 42 saves for Finland, allowing only Shea Theodore’s first-period goal.