Baseball Bucks Return To Campus – Ohio State Buckeyes
9/8/1998 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
September 8, 1998
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%^$COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio State baseball team returns to campus this week in preparation for the 1999 campaign. The squad will begin practice this Wednesday which will run through the middle of October, culminating on Oct. 12 with the beginning of the Scarlet and Gray World Series – a best of five scrimmage that runs the entire week.%^$
%^$Fall Ball Schedule
%^$Tuesday, Sept. 8: Orientation meeting, 2:30 p.m., Biggs Classroom at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center %^$
%^$Wednesday, Sept. 9: NCAA compliance meetings and physicals. Practice begins at 11 a.m. %^$
%^$Oct. 12-16: Scarlet and Gray World Series %^$
%^$June draftees Justin Fry and Mike Lockwood have elected to return for the 1999 season. Jason Turner was named MVP of the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League. He set team records for doubles (12) and runs batted in (33). He finished the summer season with a .357 average. Chad Ehrnsberger and Fry were also named to the league’s first team. %^$
%^$1998 REVIEW
%^$The Buckeyes finished the 1998 season with a 37-16 mark and a third place finish in the Big Ten Conference at 18-9. The squad was seeded third in the conference tournament, but was eliminated in two games, losing to eventual champion Minnesota, 10-3 and host Illinois, 9-8. Both the Golden Gophers and Fighting Illini were given NCAA Regional bids while OSU missed the postseason for just the second time in eight years. OSU did not lose a series all year and the Buckeyes won two tournaments in 1998, claiming the Lake Charles Classic and the UNLV/Coors Desert Classic. %^$
%^$NCAA TOURNAMENT WOES
%^$The Buckeyes failed to make the 48-team NCAA tournament field but have appeared in the postseason six times in the 90’s. Ohio State has made 12 appearances in the NCAA Tournament, including a school-best streak of five straight appearances between 1991-95 and again last season. OSU has appeared in the NCAA Tournament in 1951, 1955, 1965, 1966, 1967 and 1982 in addition to its six appearances in the 1990s. Four times – 1951, 1965, 1966 and 1967 – Ohio State has advanced to the College World Series, winning the crown in 1966. %^$
%^$EIGHT ALL-BIG TEN BUCKEYES
%^$Mark Carek, Mike Lockwood and Dan Seimetz were all first team all-conference selections. Justin Fry, Mike Kremblas, Mike Stafford, Eric Thompson and Jason Trott were all members of the Big Ten’s second team. %^$
%^$TROTT WINS BATTING TITLE…AGAIN
%^$Trott become the first player since Indiana’s Mike Smith (1991-.476, 1992-.472) to win back-to-back batting titles. Trott posted a .426 average for the 1998 regular season and claimed the crown last year with a .418 mark. Wisconsin’s Rick Reichardt is the only other player to win consecutive titles when he posted season bests in 1963 (.429) and 1964 (.472). Michigan’s Bill Freehan still holds the all-time mark of .585 for the 1961 season. Trott finished the season with a .428 overall average and a monster .532 conference mark. The senior also put together a 20-game hitting streak during the 1998 campaign, the fourth-best in school history. %^$
%^$ALL-AMERICAN EHRNSBERGER
%^$Chad Ehrnsberger was named to the 1998 Louisville Slugger Freshman All-America Team as an honorable mention infielder. The third baseman batted .340 (48-141) for the Buckeyes this year, leading the squad for doubles with 15 while posting 40 RBI and seven home runs. In final conference statistics, Ehrnsberger finished fourth for doubles per game at 0.33 and was also sixth for walks per game with 0.65. He also tied the OSU record for home runs in a game with three at Indiana. %^$
%^$Insider Information
%^$Six Buckeyes selected in draft : Six Ohio State baseball players were selected in Major League Baseball’s June draft. Mike Kremblas, C – Round 8, Toronto, Eric Thompson, RHP – Round 12, Oakland, Mike Lockwood, CF – Round 14, Oakland, Mark Carek, SS – Round 23, New York (AL), Justin Fry, RHP – Round 37, Pittsburgh and Mike Stafford, LHP – Round 41, Toronto. %^$
%^$Buckeyes No. 1 for fielding: The Buckeyes finished the season ranked first in the country for fielding percentage with a .972 mark, tied with Arkansas State.
