1999 Season Outlook – Ohio State Buckeyes
2/1/1999 12:00:00 AM | Softball
February 1, 1999
Columbus, Ohio – The secret is out.%^$ %^$After a 1998 campaign that saw OSU record its first winning season since 1995, the Buckeye softball program is officially on the rise.
%^$And all of a sudden, a program that barely had a pulse when head coach Linda Kalafatis took over in 1997, now is filled with some of the best talent from the state of Ohio, Florida and the West Coast. More importantly, this talent is producing.
%^$If the challenge of the 1998 season was learning how to win, then the challenge of the 1999 season will be learning how to put together back-to-back winning seasons.
%^$”Last year, hopefully, will prove to be our turning-point year,” Kalafatis said. “We competed much better, we were successful in our preseason tournaments, which is very important as a softball team, and this ultimately carried over into Big Ten play.
%^$”This year, we still have to prove that we can beat the top teams in the conference. It can’t be good enough just to play with them, we’ve got to get victories against them.”
%^$Honors Candidates%^$
%^$The Buckeyes will enter this season with five bona fide honors candidates.
%^$1998 second team all-Big Ten selection Jaime Chenevey returns as one of the top catchers in the conference, 1998 Regional All-Americans Cheryl Palaroan, centerfield, and Renae Weigel, shortstop, are legitimate all-Big Ten candidates at their respective positions. Freshmen outfielder Anna Smith and first baseman Samantha Kimura both possess the potential to earn Big Ten Freshman of the Year honors.
%^$The Pitching Staff%^$
%^$The pitching staff will have the most say on what type of success Ohio State will experience this year.
%^$The veteran group consists of four returnees – Meaghan Robinson, Kelli Tom, Toni Hileman and Kristi Martin.
%^$Martin returns as the team’s top pitcher after a stellar freshman campaign which saw her finish with a 9-5 record. But she enters this season as OSU’s biggest question mark. In September she underwent elbow surgery on her right arm to move an impinched ulnar nerve. The Ohio State medical staff is optimistic about her chances of returning this season.
%^$”Our entire pitching staff, with or without Kristi Martin, is a key to our season,” Kalafatis said. “Meaghan, Kelli and Toni have to be at their best each game. I think if we perform like we did in the fall, and have that kind of offensive production throughout the lineup, we will have the right ingredients for success.”
%^$With Martin out indefinitely, the onus of being the team’s top pitcher falls upon the shoulders of Robinson. She returns after an up-and-down 1998 season but will definitely look to finish her career on a high note.
%^$”Meaghan can battle for us in the big games,” Kalafatis said. “She pitched really well in the fall and hopefully she will carry that over into the season.”
%^$The coaching staff eagerly anticipates the healthy return of Tom. After three seasons of injury-plagued softball, Tom enters this season determined to contribute more than previous seasons. Her presence adds a tremendous amount of depth to the rotation.
%^$Junior Toni Hileman rounds out the rotation. Regardless of the status of Martin, Hileman will definitely have increased pitching responsibilities this season.
%^$”We are not talking about a lack of experience within our pitching staff,” Kalafatis said. “They have to go out, compete and maximize their abilities. I think each has the potential to have her best season at the collegiate level.”
%^$The Defense%^$
%^$Any talk about the Ohio State defense has to start with the outfield.
%^$”As of right now, we came out of the fall with Holly (English) in left, Cheryl (Palaroan) in center and Anna (Smith) in right,” Kalafatis said. “Within this group, there is a lot of versatility.”
%^$The threesome form what is believed to be the fastest outfield combination in the history of the school. Add Chrissy Fowler to this list and it’s even stronger.
%^$Palaroan returns after a breakthrough 1998 season. Her defensive game is marked by steadiness. Last season, she did not commit an error in 48 total chances.
%^$”Cheryl is a smart player,” Kalafatis said. “The ground she is able to cover eliminates a lot of extra-base hits.”
%^$English enters this year as the full-time starter in left field after starting 17 games there last season. In her time in the lineup, she showed above-average range, an accurate arm and an aggressive mentality.
%^$”Holly stepped in and did a great job for us last season,” Kalafatis said. “She is a talented player and we expect her to be productive offensively for us.”
%^$Smith may only be a freshman, but she is game-tested and possesses enormous potential.
%^$”Anna could be a great centerfielder and leftfielder in this program,” Kalafatis said. “She possesses great range in the outfield and is a solid all-around talent.”
%^$Fowler, a transfer, is learning the outfield position after playing the infield last year.
%^$”Chrissy has a great work ethic,” Kalafatis said. “She gives us depth and versatility. Don’t count her out of the starting lineup yet. She’s too hard of a worker to be left out.”
%^$The infield also enters the season with its share of question marks.
%^$”We will see a new first and second baseman as well as a new full-time third baseman,” Kalafatis said. “In the fall I liked the way this unit worked together. We are not a pitching staff with great speed, but we’re good at taking away the strength of a hitter. This will put the ball in the hands of our defense and the heart of our defense are the players in the dirt.”
%^$The only returnee is two-year starter Renae Weigel at shortstop. Described as having the best hands on the team, she worked on improving her defense during the offseason and fall. The results should be apparent this season.
%^$”Renae’s leadership is as crucial as her play to this team,” Kalafatis said. “She’s got be consistent and steady.”
%^$Natalie Kratzer gets the nod as the full-time starter at third base. She started 27 games at the “hot corner” and plays her position with unmatched aggressiveness.
%^$”Natalie is a very solid and efficient third baseman,” Kalafatis said. “She jumps on an opponent’s bunting game and is able to cut the ball off in the hole. The presence of her and Renae stabilizes the left side of our infield.”
%^$Julie Darney enters this season as the heir apparent to Kratzer at third base.
%^$”Julie learned in the fall that the transition to big time college softball can be a hard road,” Kalafatis said. “If she works hard and does the things we ask of her, we feel she can become a good player for our program.”
%^$At second base, Carrie Vanderpool will get the call.
%^$”Carrie has been our starter there since the first day of fall camp,” Kalafatis said. “She’s done a solid job, she’s proven to be a very hard worker and a gutsy kid. The ball is not going to get by her without her getting dirty after it. Its a great trademark to have as a second baseman.”
%^$First base will feature the highly touted freshman Samantha Kimura. She brings an excellent glove and should step into the position with ease.
%^$”Although she will be challenged by Sarah (West), Katie (Wessendorf) and our two returnees (Toni Hileman and Meaghan Robinson), Sam has the potential to star at this position,” Kalafatis said. “We expect Sam to be a great offensive force for our ball club throughout her career.
%^$”We are going from last year, where we didn’t have a true first baseman, to this year’s surplus. First base should be a solid position for us.”
%^$Setting up behind the plate is two-year starter Jaime Chenevey. With her cannon-like arm, she returns as one of the top catchers in the conference.
%^$”We’ve got some great players in the conference and I think Jaime is in that category,” Kalafatis said. “In my opinion, we have the top catcher in the Big Ten.”
%^$Chenevey’s understudy this season will be the talented Stacy Roth.
%^$”Stacy is probably the best overall athlete on the team,” Kalafatis said. “She has great potential and I’m excited to watch her develop.”
%^$The Offense%^$
%^$This is where the most significant improvement has come since Kalafatis took the helm. In the season prior to her arrival, the Buckeyes batted an anemic .259 and drove in just 153 runs. Just two years later, OSU found itself batting a healthy .289 while driving in 200 runs. The Buckeyes also set a school record last season with 89 stolen bases.
%^$With each year, Kalafatis has been able to improve the overall talent level of the Ohio State roster. In years past, OSU counted on a couple of players to generate most of the offense. Going down the roster this year, the Buckeyes have the ingredients necessary to generate offense from top to bottom.
%^$”The number of kids that can be successful hitting the ball is important,” Kalafatis said. “We are not going to count on just two or three players to carry the load. You just can’t do that in this conference. This season, we should have consistency throughout the lineup.”
%^$Speed will be served at the top of the lineup. Setting the table will be Cheryl Palaroan and Anna Smith. Palaroan, the OSU all-time single-season stolen base leader, is in striking distance of the school’s career stolen base record. Smith already has the tools to be a quality slap hitter and possesses lethal speed on the base paths.
%^$”The combination of Cheryl and Anna Smith at the top of the lineup will challenge every team we face,” Kalafatis said. “If Cheryl doesn’t get on, Anna has the capabilities and the skills to do so.”
%^$Filling in the heart of the lineup should be Jaime Chenevey, Renae Weigel, Toni Hileman and Samantha Kimura and Katie Wessendorf.
%^$”I don’t know how much over-the-wall power we have, but we do have power,” Kalafatis said. “Jaime, Renae, Toni, Sam and Katie can do this consistently. Some of the other kids can do it every once in a while. Holly English and Carrie Vanderpool, showed that in the fall.
%^$”To tell you the truth, I think we’ll get what we need from the top and bottom of our batting order. This may be unusual, but the question marks for me is in the ‘meat’ of the order – Can the kids we have there produce consistently? This will be the test and may be the key to our season.”
%^$”A good thing is that if someone is not producing in the lineup, we’ve got someone else we can put in without disturbing our whole defensive makeup. We have more versatility. That’s an important ingredient to success, but we will need run production from the middle of our lineup.”
%^$Batter Up%^$
%^$In 1997, Kalafatis started the uphill climb of rebuilding a program. In 1998, the Buckeyes learned how to win by eclipsing the 30-win plateau for only the fourth time in school history.
%^$With expectations rising and challenges escalating, Kalafatis has her program moving to the threshold of the next level.
%^$”It will always be the goal of this program to win the Big Ten Championship – there is no doubt about this,” Kalafatis said. “But as long as we make the conference tournament, anyone has a chance to take it. There have been some powers in the conference the last couple of years and there have been some personnel changes in those top teams. This is where you may see some of the growing programs maybe step in. We believe we are one of these programs but we’ll know better in May.”
