Carolina Classic Up Next for No. 25 Ohio State
2/23/2022 1:02:05 PM | Softball
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The third week of the Ohio State softball season sends the Buckeyes to Columbia, S.C. and the Carolina Classic, which will be held Friday-Sunday on the campus of South Carolina University.
The Buckeyes will take on No. 7 Virginia Tech on Friday at 1 p.m. followed by a Saturday doubleheader versus host South Carolina (3:30 p.m.) and Troy (6 p.m.). The Sunday finale will pit Ohio State versus Miami (Ohio) at 10:30 a.m.
The Basics
Ohio State vs. No. 7 Virginia Tech / 1 p.m. / Friday, Feb. 25 / Columbia, S.C.; Carolina Softball Stadium
Live Stats / Twitter Updates
Ohio State vs. South Carolina / 3:30 p.m. / Saturday, Feb. 26 / Columbia, S.C.; Carolina Softball Stadium
Live Stats / Twitter Updates / Watch Live (SEC Network+)
Ohio State vs. Troy / 6 p.m. / Saturday, Feb. 26 / Columbia, S.C.; Carolina Softball Stadium
Live Stats / Twitter Updates
Ohio State vs. Miami (Ohio) / 10:30 a.m. / Sunday, Feb. 27 / Columbia, S.C.; Carolina Softball Stadium
Live Stats / Twitter Updates
Briefly on the Buckeyes
- Ohio State is 7-1 on the season and won four of five games last weekend is Leesburg, Fla. as part of The Spring Games.
- Ohio State is ranked No. 25 in this week’s Extra Inning Softball poll. It’s one of four Big Ten teams in the poll.
- The Buckeyes have the Big Ten’s best winning percentage over the first three weekends and are tied with Northwestern, Rutgers and Minnesota for the most overall wins.
- Six players who have 20 or more at bats are hitting over .300 thus far, led by freshman Melina Wilkison. She’s batting .423 with nine runs scored and four RBI.
- Ohio State’s .304 average as a team is third-best in the Big Ten.
- Other .300+ hitters include Avery Clark (.346), Kami Kortokrax (.333), Niki Carver (.316), Sam Hackenbracht (.308) and Jaycee Ruberti (.300).
- The pitching staff features three who have multiple wins thus far: graduate student Lexie Handley, sophomore Allison Smith and sophomore Emily Ruck.
- Handley’s 1.43 ERA is seventh-best in the Big Ten, as is her 41 strikeouts in 29.1 innings.
- Ohio State is the only team in the conference to rank in the top four in both team batting average and earned run average.
The Weekend that Was
- The Buckeyes allowed just seven earned runs over five games for a team ERA of 1.40.
- Lexie Handley, Allison Smith, Emily Ruck and Jessica Ross combined to strike out 46 batters in 35.0 innings of action.
- Handley (13) and Smith (11) both established new career highs for single-game strikeouts.
- In a 5-2 win over North Carolina, Ohio State’s 7-8-9 hitters – Kami Kortokrax, Kaitlyn Coffman and Kaitlyn Farley – went a combined 6-for-8 with four RBI.
Buckeyes vs. The Field
- Ohio State hasn’t face Virginia Tech since 2016, a 13-0 five-inning win in Greensburg, S.C., and has won six of the eight all-time meetings.
- The Buckeyes opened their 2020 season at South Carolina and lost 3-2 in their last meetings vs. the Gamecocks. South Carolina has won three of the four all-time matchups.
- Saturday will be the first-ever meeting between Ohio State and Troy.
- The Buckeyes have played Miami 36 times previously but none since 2015. Ohio State owns a 20-15-1 lead in the all-time series.
This and That
- Wins over Virginia Tech and South Carolina would match Ohio State’s best 10-game start in program history. The 2002, 2009 and 2018 teams all started 9-1.
- Two members of Ohio State’s coaching staff have ties to Miami (Ohio): head coach Kelly Kovach Schoenly went 188-152-1 over six seasons (2007-12) in Oxford with two MAC titles and assistant coach Jordan Clark played for the Redhawks from 2009-12 and twice was an all-conference selection.
- Handley’s 13 strikeouts were the most by an Ohio State pitcher in a game in nearly 10 years, since Olivia O’Reilly fanned 15 vs. Radford during the 2013 season.
- Ohio State has combined to outscore its opponents 16-1 in the first and second innings and has scored first seven times.
- The Buckeyes have produced 14 two-out RBI so far this season. In a 5-2 win last Sunday vs. North Carolina, two of the five runs that the Buckeyes scored came with two outs, including the go-ahead RBI by Kaitlyn Farley in the bottom of the fourth inning.
