WATCH: Ohio State baseball team’s hilarious interruption during Joseph Mershon’s postgame interview
The Ohio State Buckeyes had a convincing 15-2 win in their first game of the Big Ten Tournament over the Nebraska Cornhuskers on Tuesday night. But what happened during the seven innings before the game was called is not the story. After the game, second baseman Joseph Mershon was being interviewed after going 2-for-4 with a double, a walk, two runs scored, a homer and four RBIs.
However, during the post-game interview, his teammates hilariously messed with him by continuing to put random objects on his body.
Ohio State's victory in the first round sets them up for a quarterfinal matchup against the Indiana Hoosiers. Indiana secured an 8-6 win over the Purdue Boilermakers in their opening-round game.
Will the Ohio State Buckeyes win the Big Ten Tournament?
The Ohio State Buckeyes are in an interesting spot as they are 29-24 overall after their first-round victory and need a strong showing in the Big Ten Tournament to get to the NCAA Tournament.
If the Buckeyes win the conference championship, they automatically get a berth, but if they do not, they will have to wait until the Selection Show to see if they received one of the at-large bids.
They do not have great odds to win the College World Series. According to DraftKings Sportsbook, their odds are at +50000 to win the national championship. However, this team has some potential magic around it.
It started with the first game, in which they rested some pitchers and only had to throw seven innings, compared to the nine that other teams needed to use. Getting that slight advantage now could go a long way into winning the Big Ten Tournament.
The Buckeyes' pitching is where the issues arise as they have a 6.15 team ERA and a .273 opposing batting average. The less the team has to pitch, the more rest their pitching staff can get, and the less they have to be used.
Nebraska is a good team, and if the bats dominate as they did with 15 runs, it will take a lot of pressure off the pitchers and can give Ohio State a chance at winning the Big Ten Tournament this season.