Head coach Bob Todd and members of the Ohio State baseball team will have their first practice of the season Monday, Feb. 2, at 2 p.m. The first hour will be an entire team workout at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center (WHAC) with the second hour a divided workout between the WHAC and the baseball hitting cages beneath the baseball offices at Bill Davis Stadium.
Todd, who joined former Ohio State coaches L.W. St. John and Marty Karow in the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame with his induction earlier this month, is in his 22nd year as Ohio State coach. He is just 45 wins away from 1,000 career wins and enters the season with a career mark of 955-517-2 and an Ohio State record of 831-435-2. He has led the Buckeyes to six Big Ten Conference championships, eight Big Ten tournament titles and to 12 NCAA tournament berths.
The Buckeyes open their season Feb. 20-22 in St. Petersburg, Fla., at the inaugural BIG EAST-Big Ten Baseball Challenge. Ohio State will take on Notre Dame, Connecticut and Cincinnati in its three “challenge” games.
3 comments:
Great to hear the guys are working hard and getting ready for the Florida trip coming up in a couple of weeks. Hopefully Coach Todd can win those 45 games this year to lead the Buckeyes to a Big Ten title and a NCAA berth. Have to start the season off well against a good Notre Dame team. AJ Pollock is a great hitter and a good CF. He had a great summer in the cape cod league. He lead the league in hits(61) and hit .377. 2B Jeremy Barnes also lead the team with 50 rbi's last yr.
ND has been picked to finish 3rd in the Big East this spring. They also have a couple football players(Sharpley,Maust and Tate) that are decent baseball players. Evan Sharpley (a backup QB) hit 13 hr's and drove in 40 runs last spring. Eric Maust (a punter on the football team) pitched 69 IP,won 6 games and made 14 apperance's on the hill last spring. A win against these guys would be a awesome way to start the season for the Buckeyes.
Coached Todd commented about the great summers that some of the sophomore pitchers had during his interview at the first day of practice, I took a look. Not sure why he thinks Rucinski pitched in the Northwoods League.
Here are the stats and info I found at the Valley Baseball League site, PG Crosschecker, and Baseball America.
Rucinski finished 5-1, 1.13 ERA, with 1 save, a 0.916 WHIP, 2.3 BB/9, and 9.5 K/9 in 55 2/3 innings, and .190 opponent's batting average. He finished 1st in the league in ERA.
Wimmers finished 5-1, 1.70 ERA, with 3 saves, a 0.962 WHIP, 3.2 BB/9, 12.2 K/9 in 53 innings, and .174 opponent's batting average. He finished 4th in the league in ERA.
Wolosainsky finished 3-4, 3.46 ERA, a 1.538 WHIP, 4.5 BB/9, 6 K/9 in 52 innings, and a .271 opponent's batting average.
Armstrong finished 4-0, 4.54 ERA, a 1.646 WHIP, 2.6 BB/9, 8.8 K/9 in 37 2/3 innings, and a .323 opponent's batting average.
PG Crosschecker picked Wimmers as the 18th best prospect in the Valley League, Rucinski as the 19th on their list of the top 25 prospects.
Baseball America picked Wimmers the 2nd best prospect in the Valley League on their list of the top 10 prospects.
Rucinski was picked 2008 Valley League Second Team all League Starting Pitcher.
The "All Things Valley League" Blog picked Rucinski as the number 1 starting pitcher in the league; Wimmers was selected as number 3.
With the four listed above along with Hale, Best, Barrera, and Minium, the pitching could be awesome.
I agree i think the pitching staff can be great but there are a lot of unproven guys that are going to be pitching in key spots this season. I really hope Minuim and Barrera are 100% healthy and ready to regain some of their old form on the hill. Hopefully on the Florida trip BT can find some guys to pitch during the week in relief. Hopefully we can see some nice improvement from Armstrong, Wimms, Dean W and Rucinski this season too. That is a big key to see some change/differance from their freshman to sophomore seasons as pitchers.
Only a couple more weeks till the season starts in Florida, i can't wait and like always Go Bucks!
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