With the middle of April quickly approaching, that can only mean one thing. The Ohio State baseball team is over the half way point of their season and heading down the home stretch. Today we take a look at the Buckeyes and recap their seasons to this point.
The baseball team started the season off with a trip down south and the Big Ten/Big East Challenge. The first of six games was a matchup with South Florida. The Buckeyes struggled to get timely hits. Ryan Cypret, Josh Dezse, and Mike Carroll combined to go 7 for 13, but it wasn’t enough as the Bucks fell 5-3 in the season opener.
Next up was the Pirates of Seton Hall. This time the bats came alive. Every player in the lineup cracked into the hit column led by third baseman Brad Hallberg’s 3 for 4 performance. All totaled the Bucks pounded out 14 hits and scored all fourteen of their without the help of a homerun. Seton Hall smashed 14 hits of their own but was only able to score 7 as the Bucks bounced back from the season opening loss with a victory 14-7.
After splitting the next 4 games with Connecticut and Georgia Tech, the Bucks left the Big Ten/Big East Challenge and headed to the Snowbirds Classic with a 3-3 record. The Classic featured matchups with Michigan, Western Michigan, and Villanova. Four games between three opponents left the Bucks finishing the classic 3-1 and moving on to the Coastal Carolina Tournament with a 7-4 record.
The Coastal Carolina Tournament looked more like the opening tournament. Ohio State was able to knock of Marist and Toledo, while losing two to host Coastal Carolina. It was more of the same in regards to the bats for the Buckeyes. In Ohio State’s 2 wins they outscored their opponents 30-3 but in their two losses they were only able to score three while giving up seven.
The Bucks bounced back to finish the pre-season schedule with three wins out of five games. After all was said and done, Ohio State had a record of 11-8 heading into the Big Ten season.
The Buckeyes went 2-4 against Purdue and Michigan State with a victory over Eastern Michigan in between the two series’. At this point of the season, their record was 14-12 and the Buckeyes were left searching for some sort of spark. That spark may have come in their game against Miami (OH).
Ohio State pitching held Miami to only 5 hits and only gave up 2 runs. On the offensive side, the bats woke up yet again. Every member of the lineup collected at least one hit once again as the Buckeyes had 13. This time the scored nine runs and again without the help of a homerun. The 9-2 victory over the Red Hawks has lead to a 6 game winning streak that included a 7-2 win over Akron last night.
The Buckeyes head into their weekend series with Nebraska and the homestretch with a 20-12 overall record and a 5-4 Big Ten record. They are within striking distance of the top spot in the conference. They must find a way to consistently score runs in order to take some pressure off their pitching staff. IF they are able to this, they could finish the season strong and hopefully make a run a run in the tournament.
Only time will tell.
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