The Kent State baseball team traveled down to Columbus and Big Ten country to take on the Ohio State Buckeyes on Wednesday. Kent State came in on an 11-game winning streak after sweeping the Central Michigan Chippewas in conference play, looking to earn win No.12 on the streak and 20 overall while Ohio State sought to keep its perfect home record when playing Kent State at Bill Davis Stadium. 

Kent State dominated the Buckeyes, 8-3, with very strong hitting that put the game out of question by the sixth inning.

Junior Ciaran Caughey would draw the start for the Flashes. He would pitch three innings, allowing just two runs on five hits.

The Flashes would jump ahead within the first two batters, as graduate student utility man Hayden Jatczak homered to left center on a pitch right in his wheelhouse. The home run also drove in freshman centerfielder Micah Rienstra-Kiracofe to make it 2-0.

The Buckeyes would get a run back in the second when freshman third baseman Maddix Sampson singled in junior catcher Matthew Graveline to cut the deficit in half to 2-1.

The third would see the Flashes get the run back when Jatczak would, once again, drive in Kiracofe, this time with a double that scored the speedy Kiracofe all the way from first.

In the fourth inning, sophomore outfielder Alejandro Covas would extend the lead even further, doubling to the left-center warning track to score senior first baseman Hunter Klotz and make it a 4-1 ballgame.

Junior outfielder Reggie Bussey would get the Buckeyes back into the ballgame by singling and running around the bases to halve the lead to 4-2. This was part of a sequence of events that knocked Caughey out of the game. In to replace him was redshirt freshman right hander Evan Holewinski.

The righty allowed just one hit and one unearned run in his two-and-one-third innings pitched, striking out two batters.

The fifth and the sixth would see the Flashes put the final blows in the Buckeye tree with freshman utility player Sawyer Solitaria having a productive groundout that scored Jatczak, who would tally three runs on the day to go along with three runs batted in. Klotz would then single in senior outfielder Jake Casey to make it 6-2 Flashes.

The sixth saw Solitaria put the final nails in the coffin from the offensive side, driving in both Casey and Jatczak to make it 8-2. The Buckeyes would tally on a run in the bottom half to make it 8-3, but it was in vain, as the Flashes held them scoreless the rest of the game to win it by the score of 8-3.

The game ended when senior closer Peyton Cariaco induced a game-ending 3-6-1 twin killer to lock down the win.

This was the 12th consecutive win for the Flashes, who possess the second-longest winning streak in all of Division-I baseball, behind only the Austin Peay Governors, who possess a 13-game winning streak. 

The win went to Caughey, his third win of the year, while the loss was saddled to sophomore right hander Zak Sigman.

The notables

Jatczak shined offensively on the day, driving in three runs, scoring three runs and tying for the lead with two hits. So far through the season, Jatczak leads the team with 44 hits.

Holewinski has also shined in his last two outings, allowing no earned runs in just under five innings pitched.

Graduate student right hander Benny Roebuck is also on a tear, having four consecutive scoreless outings out on the mound since his appearance against Bowling Green where he allowed four runs.

Up next

Kent State improved to 20-11 and remains at 10-2 in Mid-American Conference play.

Kent State will travel to Oxford Ohio to take on the RedHawks of Miami University in a battle of two of the top three schools in the MAC, as Miami sits atop the MAC, with Kent and Ball State tied with a record of 12-3 in conference play. First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m. on Friday, with the weekend games beginning at 1 p.m.

Redshirt sophomore Gavin Jones and sophomore Jake Bean are slated to pitch Friday and Saturday, respectively.