Practice Begins for the Baseball Buckeyes – Ohio State Buckeyes
1/24/2000 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Jan. 24, 2000
COLUMBUS, Ohio – A season full of new obstacles and challenges, yet with the same goals as always, begins today for the 2000 Ohio State baseball team. After finishing just one win shy of a berth to last year’s College World Series, the Buckeyes look to capitalize on that experience and take the program to yet another level. The team will practice Monday-Saturday for the next five weeks. The season begins on Feb. 25 at the Service Academies Classic in Millington, Tenn. %^$
%^$Preseason All-Conference
%^$In the Baseball America preseason poll, Ohio State is the highest ranked Big Ten school at No. 31. As a conference, the Big Ten is ranked as the sixth toughest in the nation. In their conference preseason prognostications, the Buckeyes are predicted to win the championship and earn an NCAA Tournament berth. Both second baseman Chad Ehrnsberger and pitcher E.J. Laratta were named to the preseason all-conference team. Laratta is also the preseason Big Ten Pitcher of the Year and Nick Swisher is the magazine’s choice as the preseason Big Ten Freshman of the Year. Ehrnsberger was voted as the conference’s best defensive second baseman while Laratta was voted as having the best breaking ball. To read more about Baseball America’s preseason prognostications, log on to their website at www.baseballamerica.com. %^$
%^$Baseball America Predicted Finish (rank)
%^$ 1. Ohio State (31)%^$ 2. Penn State (41)%^$ 3. Illinois (56)%^$ 4. Minnesota (70)%^$ 5. Michigan (76)%^$ 6. Purdue (100)%^$ 7. Indiana%^$ 8. Northwestern%^$ 9. Iowa%^$ 10. Michigan State%^$
%^$Other Early Rankings
%^$In the Collegiate Baseball NCAA Division I Preseason Poll, the Buckeyes are ranked No. 27. OSU is one of three Big Ten schools ranked along with No. 27 Minnesota and No. 35 Illinois. The Buckeyes are also scheduled to face No. 21 Texas A&M and No. 25 Notre Dame. %^$
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%^$ Rank Team (1999 Record) Points%^$ 1. Stanford (50-15) 480%^$ 2. Cal. St. Fullerton (50-14) 477%^$ 3. Alabama (53-16 474%^$ 4. UCLA (31-31) 470%^$ 5. Miami, Fla. (50-13) 469%^$ 6. Florida St. (57-14) 467%^$ 7. Rice (59-15) 463%^$ 8. Louisiana St. (41-24-1) 460%^$ 9. Georgia Tech. (38-20) 459%^$ 10. Houston (40-24) 455%^$ 11. Clemson (42-27) 452%^$ 12. Texas (36-26) 450%^$ 13. Tulane (48-17) 447%^$ 14. Wichita St. (59-14) 442%^$ 15. Southern Calif. (36-26) 439%^$ 16. Baylor (50-15) 438%^$ 17. Auburn (46-19) 435%^$ 18. Texas Tech. (42-17) 433%^$ 19. Arizona (33-23) 430%^$ 20. North Carolina (41-18) 426%^$ 21. Texas A&M (52-18) 425%^$ 22. Long Beach St. (35-25) 422%^$ 23. Oklahoma St. (46-21) 419%^$ 24. Florida (31-25) 415%^$ 25. Notre Dame (43-18) 413%^$ 27. Minnesota (46-18) 406%^$ 35. Illinois (34-22) 381%^$ 37. Ohio State (50-14) 373%^$
%^$Preseason All-American
%^$The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association has named pitcher E.J. Laratta to its 2000 Preseason All-America baseball team. The sophomore hurler was a third-team selection. Laratta returns after a stellar 1999 season. He carried a 10-3 record with a 3.74 earned run average and 59 strikeouts. At the conclusion of the season, he was named a Freshman All-American, first-team all-Big Ten and the 1999 Big Ten Freshman of the Year. The sophomore was the Big Ten Conference’s only representative on the NCBWA Preseason All-America team. %^$
%^$All-American Ehrnsberger
%^$Chad Ehrnsberger was named to the 1999 National College Baseball Writers Association All-American team. A second team selection at second base, Ehrnsberger led the Buckeyes with 16 home runs and 73 runs batted in. These numbers placed him third in both categories in the Big Ten Conference. Ehrnsberger also carried a .356 batting average and a .648 slugging percentage. %^$
%^$Four All-Big Ten’s Return
%^$Last season, the baseball team had nine student-athletes named to the all-Big Ten team. Of these nine, four are returning this year -first team selections pitcher E.J. Laratta and second baseman Chad Ehrnsberger, second team selection pitcher Cory Cox and third team selection shortstop Trent McIlvain. %^$
%^$A Look at the Schedule
%^$The 2000 season will begin on Feb. 25 in Millington, Tenn., as the Buckeyes compete in the Service Academy Baseball Classic. The other spring tournaments scheduled are the North Florida Baseball Tourney in Jacksonville, Fla. (March 3-5), the Winthrop Classic in Rock Hill, S.C. (March 10-12) and the Aggie Continental Airlines Tournament in Commerce, Texas (March 17-20). The Buckeyes have 15 home dates scheduled at Bill Davis Stadium. The three Big Ten weekends are against Iowa (March 31-April 2), Indiana (April 21-23) and Michigan State (May 12-14). %^$
%^$Fall Recap
%^$Four weeks of practice during Autumn Quarter culminated into Ohio State’s version of the “Fall Classic,” the Scarlet and Gray World Series. The result was a 3-1 series win for the Scarlet team. E.J. Laratta went 2-0 in the best-of-five classic and Nick Swisher paced the Scarlet offense by going 8-for-10 (.800). %^$
%^$1999 Review
%^$The 1999 season will go down as one of the best ever in school history. The Buckeyes finished the season with an astonishing 50-14 (.781) overall record. The winning percentage ranked ninth in the country and marked only the second time in school history that the Buckeyes reached the 50 win plateau. From April 11-May 8, OSU rattled off a school record 21-game winning streak. In conference play, OSU captured the Big Ten Regular Season Championship with a 25-3 record. At the conclusion of the season, head coach Bob Todd was named the Big Ten Coach of the Year for the third time in his career. In the postseason, the Buckeyes earned the right to play host to both the NCAA Regional and Super Regional tournaments. In the Columbus Regional, the team went 3-0 to capture the championship. In the Super Regional, a Game One win put the Buckeyes on the threshold of a berth to the College World Series only to have Cal-State Fullerton come back and win the best of three series. Three Buckeyes earned All-America honors at the conclusion of the season (Chad Ehrnsberger, Justin Fry and Mike Lockwood). %^$
%^$Winter Practice Schedule
%^$Monday, Jan. 24 Practice begins for the 2000 Ohio State Buckeyes. The team will practice from noon-2 p.m., Monday-Friday. The Buckeyes will also practice on Saturday. %^$
%^$Saturday, Feb. 19 Meet the Team Media Day – Registration begins at 10:15 a.m. with the luncheon beginning at 11:30 a.m. This year’s event is at the Holiday Inn on Lane. For more information, please call The Diamond Club at (614) 771-7070. %^$
%^$Friday, Feb. 25 The 2000 season begins in Millington, Tenn. at the Service Academies Spring Classic. The Buckeyes are scheduled to face Navy, Notre Dame and Memphis. %^$
%^$Insider Information%^$For the remainder of the season, the Ohio State baseball team will be made available to the media every Tuesday at the conclusion of practice. For more information, please contact Pat Chun in the OSU Athletics Communications Office.
