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Thursday, March 12, 2009

9-2 Buckeyes Travel to West Palm Beach for Four

Team faces Pitt and three first time opponents: SIUE, UMBC and NDSU

Ohio State, which survived through a 2-2 weekend last week to remain nationally ranked for a third consecutive week - No. 30 by Collegiate Baseball - will look to strengthen that ranking with four games this weekend as part of the Palm Beach Baseball Classic. All four games will be played at the Santaluces Sports Complex.
Opponents for the Buckeyes this week include regional rival Pittsburgh at 6 p.m. Friday followed by games against first-time opponents SIU Edwardsville, Maryland Baltimore County and North Dakota State.


Palm Beach Baseball Classic
Santaluces Sports Complex in
West Palm Beach, Fla.
Game 12: vs. Pittsburgh
(5-4 2009; 19-34 in 2008)
Friday, March 13 - 6 p.m.

Game 13: vs. SIU Edwardsville
(1-5 2009; 25-26 in 2008)
Saturday, March 14 - 12:30 p.m.

Game 14: vs. Maryland Baltimore Co.
(1-2 2009; 21-29 in 2008)
Saturday, March 14 - 3:30 p.m.

Game 15: vs. North Dakota State
(1-6 2009; 15-30 in 2008)
Sunday, March 15 - 12 noon

Ohio State probable rotation:
Fri. vs. Pitt - Alex Wimmers (2-0; 2.25 ERA)
Sat. vs. SIUE - Andrew Armstrong (1-0; 2.25)
Sat. vs. UMBC - Eric Best (1-0; 5.84)
Sun. vs. NDSU - D. Wolosiansky (1-1; 12.15)


THE OPPONENTS THIS WEEK (SO FAR)

Pittsburgh had its four-game winning streak end Wednesday with an 11-6 loss at No. 6 Miami. The 5-4 Panthers got a complete game win from David Kaye Tuesday in a 6-0 win over SIU Edwardsville. 3B Joe Leonard (.323 in 2009), SS Danny Lopez (.360 with 12 RBI) and 1B Chris Warrner (.200) each hit seven home runs in 2008. C Cory Brownsten (.389, 2 HR, 9 RBI) and INF Chris Sedon (.536, 2 HR, 10 RBI, 5 SBs) are also offensive threats. The team is hitting .303 and the staff has a 4.16 ERA.

SIU Edwardsville, 1-8 this season, is coming off a 22-12 loss to St. Joseph’s Wednesday. The Cougars play Long Island Friday. The Cougars are transitioning from the Great Lakes Valley Conference to the Ohio Valley Conference. Leading the way is senior INF Josh Street (10 RBI in 2009), who hit .407 in 2008 with 26 doubles and 54 RBI. OFs Adam Eggemeyer and Chase Thrasher are hitting .355 and .353, respectively. The team is hitting .289 and its team ERA is 7.01.

UMBC players hit five home runs Monday but lost to Yale, 17-11, to drop to 1-4 on the year. The Retrievers are coming off a 5-4 loss at Towson State Wednesday. 1B Shawn Retz has 3 HRs and is hitting .357. OF Bryan Russo is hitting .462 with two HRs. LHP Ed Bach (0-1, 6.75) pitched 79.1 innings in 2008 as a starter.

North Dakota State led powerful Wichita State, 3-2, in the seventh inning before losing 5-3 during its first series of the year. The Bison, from Fargo, N.D., are 1-6 on the season and play Pittsburgh Saturday. NDSU is led by Summit League player of the week Eric Nutzhorn (.478 avg., 10 RBI) and the Zach duo of Zach Heidmann (.444) and Zach Wentz (.423). John Straka and Josh Smith headline a rebuilt staff.

FOLLOW THE ACTION via LIVE STATS
Track the action through Live Stats, available on OhioStateBuckeyes.com. Click on the Live Stats link on the main home page in the upper right hand corner or through the baseball schedule page to access.

Full Ohio State Weekly Release

10 comments:

powerdog18 said...

Palm Beach Baseball Classic
Ohio State probable rotation:

Fri. vs. Pitt - Alex Wimmers (2-0; 2.25 ERA)
Sat. vs. SIUE - Andrew Armstrong (1-0; 2.25)
Sat. vs. UMBC - Eric Best (1-0; 5.84)
Sun. vs. NDSU - D. Wolosiansky (1-1; 12.15)

So with Best starting we have 0 reliable/tested LH relief pitching.

I can't believe that Wolosiansky is still starting, Hale or Rucinski should move into that role until Wolosiansky gets it together. We need starters that can go at least 6 innings, the pen has had to throw as many innings as the starters.
Hopefully we can get a few good starts this week against weaker teams.

4 of the last 6 said...

powerdog18 .... I agree with you to a certain extent. There was a lot of talk on this forum about using arguably our best (certainly our most experienced) pitcher Jake Hale more often (i.e as a starter) as opposed to hopefully saving him in case we need him to hold on to a 12-11 lead for us. Not sure we have that luxury. This season so far -- not meany 'true closer' situations; and given the nature of college baseball (as opposed to pro) there simply are so many high scoring games you are taking a chance that a high caliber reliever may be availble to you but simply not necessary on a regular basis. Don't get me wrong ... don't want your best 'mop up' guy as your closer; but when your team is 7th in a 10 team conference in ERA .... you might want to shake things up a bit. Yes there has been some "wind blown" scores to inflate our ERA(e.g. vs. CT.) but I'm willing to bet that each team in the conference has also been the victim of 1 or 2 of those. Having said all of that; I still say let Wolo pitch out of it. He's proven to be quality, and let's face it Wins / Loses are secondary in this 'pre - season'; especially vs. the poor quality we face. Winning the conference / tournament is all that matters as RPIs usually don't get you into the NCAA tourney unless you win something in the Big 10 (heck --- I believe Ill. won the conference reg season in 2005 and they didn't get a bid; so it can be argued winning the Big 10 tourney is the most important thing). Final thought; is it just me or does Stephens leave an awful lot of guys on? He's got nice stats but it seems like he's being picked up by Gus / Burkhart a lot when a clutch (e.g. 2 out) RBI is needed

BaseballBucks33 said...

I agree winning the conference tourny is the most important games OSU will play this season. This weekend though is the time to tinker and try some differant things pitching wise and with the lineup. Our competition this weekend is well below average and the Bucks need to play well and not down to their level. I agree about Stephens it does seem like he does leave a lot of runners on base and end innings. We were talking on another forum the other day, i really don't think the 3-hole is a good spot for him. He is only hitting .278 with a .316 slg %. I would put Streng in the 3 spot. Ride the hot bat while you can. I also hope Justin Miller (.255 ba) can get hot for a while.

Go Buckeyes, take care of buisness on game at a time.

4 of the last 6 said...

BaseballBallBuck33 ...Agree with your comments. I'm confident Gus will come around offensively. Will be interesting to see if he stays at 3rd or moves back to 1st to accomodate if / when Engle returns to SS; moving Rupert back to 3rd. Or will Streng be in there for awhile? And what about when DeLucia returns? Outstanding infield depth is a nice problen that we have. You mentioned that you were discussing the Bucks on another forum. What forum might that be?

BaseballBucks33 said...

The other forum is JJ Huddle. They have a nice college baseball section. My other home away from home. Lol!! I wish i knew what Tyler Engle's deal is? Is he hurt (leg or shoulder) or is Coach Todd going to stay with Streng for a while. He is really hot @ the plate right now and playing a nice 1st base too. To be honest i did not know Matt Streng played 1st,he has been a nice suprise after DeLucia got hurt in Jacksonville. I agree about Miller i just know he can hit so much better.

powerdog18 said...

I’m not sure the Bucks can let Wolosiansky “pitch out of it” at the expense of the bullpen. We need to have a third reliable starter ready to go in two weeks. It will be interesting to see who we use from the pen this weekend with Best as a starter.

What are they going to do when mid-week games start?

Guillermo said...

powerdog.....you bring up a good question regarding mid-week games and one I can't wait to see answered by BT and staff. The guys who pitched 95% of the innings in the mid-week games last year (Armstrong, Wimmers, Rucinski and Best) are all going to be involved deeply on weekends this year. If you consider your weekend pitching will consist primarily of those guys plus Jake and Wolo (?) that leaves Minium, Olterik, Strayer, Barrera and Shinn to pitch the mid-week games. The weeks with just one mid-week game probably won't be too bad but the weeks with two games could present a problem.

4 of the last 6 said...

I enjoy mid week games; but the significance is .....?? Agree we need to get pitching in order, but I'm concerned about the 3 weekend games. Nice effort by Wimmers tonight but the Bucks are still going to be no better than middle of the pack in ERA. Interesitng game. 20 runs (13 earned) on only 3 extra base hits? Of course there were 5 HBPs (hmmm . .Pitt frustration?) and 3 errors. No need for Jake Hale again. I guess that's a good thing but, again, can we afford the luxury of the kid not even getting a sniff of coming into the game whan the pitching overall has been marginal?

Guillermo said...

The mid-week games are only significant if you lose too many of them and then don't win the Big Ten tourney. I don't think the Bucks will have a problem in most of those games because if they keep banging the ball the way they have been they'll outscore most of the mid-week competition. The scores could be pretty ugly though.

4 of the last 6 said...

Guillermo ... I'd contend that even if the Bucks won all of their mid-week games that because these opponents' RPIs will be so weak (yes I know they play 2 vs. Louisville) the selection process (simple math / committee impresion of norhtern basesall) will not go well for them. They need to kick butt in the Big 10 and / or win the conference tourney to get in.

My concern is that this season is shaping up like the last few ... beating up on a very weak 'pre-season' schedule in spite of our mediocre pitching because we are able to pound pitchers that would be mop up guys in the Big 10. We quickly fall 2 to 3 games off the pace in the Conference race and never seem to have the pitching depth to catch up