Buckeyes Entertain Bobcats Wednesday – Ohio State Buckeyes
4/2/2007 12:00:00 AM | Softball
April 2, 2007
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SETTING THE SCENE
COLUMBUS, Ohio – In the first of four consecutive Wednesday night non-conference doubleheaders at Buckeye Field, the Ohio State softball team hosts Ohio University at 5 p.m. Wednesday. The Buckeyes (21-13, 4-0 Big Ten) are 6-0 at home this season and are coming off a pair of sweeps last weekend in Big Ten play. The Bobcats (14-17, 3-1 Mid-American Conference) also had a successful start to their league slate, going 3-1 at home in MAC play.
Ohio State’s student radio station will call both games live on its Web site at www.OhioStateSports.com. GameTracker will have live statistics at www.OhioStateBuckeyes.com. Links are found on the softball schedule page.
Separated by about 70 miles, Ohio State and OU have met 55 times, more than any other non-conference opponent in both programs’ history. The Buckeyes and Bobcats have not met since 2003, however, and Ohio State takes a six-game winning streak in the series into Wednesday’s doubleheader.
The Buckeyes’ 4-0 start in the Big Ten is their first since 1990 when they won the league title. Ohio State will not play another home Big Ten game until April 27, however, as the Buckeyes hit the road for the next three weekends inside the conference.
OHIO STATE AT BUCKEYE FIELD
Ohio State is 98-10 in non-conference games at Buckeye Field since 11th-year head coach Linda Kalafatis took over the program in 1997. The Buckeyes have won 21-consecutive home non-conference games in a streak that dates back to April 21, 2004 when Kentucky nipped Ohio State, 4-3. Last year at Buckeyes Field, Ohio State went 21-2, batted .350 as a team and owned a 1.58 staff earned run average.
OSU GETS BACK INTO BIG TEN RACE THIS WEEKEND
Ohio State plays its next three Big Ten weekends on the road, beginning this week at Michigan State Friday and Saturday and at No. 8 Michigan Sunday. The Spartans, who travel to Detroit Tuesday, are 18-16 overall and 0-2 in league play after getting swept at No. 7 Northwestern Sunday. The Wolverines are 26-6 overall and 1-1 in the Big Ten after splitting at Northwestern Friday and Saturday. Michigan hosts Western Michigan Tuesday.
OHIO STATE AT A GLANCE
The Buckeyes (21-13) have won seven of their last eight games and 12 of their last 16. Ohio State is hitting .272 as a team, which includes a .313 team batting average in the last 12 games. Last weekend, the Buckeyes hit .373 with runners on base. Ohio State pitchers own a 2.68 staff earned run average, which is down nearly two full runs a game since February ended with a 4.59 ERA.
The Buckeyes are 16-4 when they score first. They are 17-3 when they out-hit their opponent. Ohio State has outscored its opponents 27-12 in the first inning this season and 29-14 in the third. The Buckeyes’ current four-game winning streak is their longest of the season.
Ohio State owns signature wins over then-No. 22 Fresno State, then-No. 17 Cal and then-No. 26 Virginia Tech. Four of the Buckeyes’ losses have come against Top 10 teams.
Ohio State has 10 letterwinners and eight starters back from its 2006 squad that went 39-23 and 11-7 in the Big Ten and went to the Tucson Regional of the NCAA tournament. The Buckeyes have led the Big Ten in batting the last two years.
Head coach Linda Kalafatis is in her 11th year at Ohio State and is one of three coaches in the Big Ten with more than 600 wins. Since 2000, the Buckeyes are 281-159 for a .640 winning percentage, which ranks third in the Big Ten during that time.
INSIDE THE MATCH-UP
The Buckeyes and Bobcats share two common opponents this year, Fresno State and Long Beach State. Ohio State beat then-No. 22 FSU 2-1 Feb. 23 in Palm Springs but fell at LBSU 10-6 March 20. Ohio faced both teams twice, dropping all four games by a combined total of 28-2. Ohio State is 0-1 against the Mid-American Conference this season, falling to Central Michigan 5-2 March 9 in Clearwater. OU has not faced a Big Ten opponent yet.
A LOOK AT THE BOBCATS
Ohio (14-17, 3-1 Mid-American Conference) is coming off its home openers last weekend against Ball State (swept 4-0 and 3-1) and Miami (OU won 2-1, lost 1-0). Freshman Shalene Petrich leads the Bobcats with a .356 average and 17 stolen bases, while senior Kelly Rodriquez is batting .352 with 19 RBI. Pitchers include Candace Saucedo (3-2, 1.96 ERA) and two-time MAC pitcher of the week Michelle Sauter (8-7, 2.36 ERA).
The Bobcats, with 15 letterwinners back from their 2006 team that went 27-40 overall and 7-15 in the MAC, were picked fourth in the MAC East Division preseason coaches poll. Head coach Jill Matyuch is in her first year at Ohio after spending the last six seasons at Texas, where she faced Ohio State once (2004 in Tempe, Texas won 3-1).
ALL-TIME SERIES NOTES
Ohio State is 35-20 all-time against Ohio and has won six straight over the Bobcats dating back to a 12-8 loss at Buckeye Field in 1997. Ohio is making its first trip to Columbus since 2002, when Ohio State won 11-0. These teams last met in 2003, when the Buckeyes swept a doubleheader, 6-1 and 9-1, in Athens. Ohio State is 11-4 all-time against Ohio at Buckeye Field.
BUCKEYE-BOBCAT CONNECTIONS
Ohio State fr. OF Leah Ledford and OU fr. OF Rachel Denham were high school teammates at Lakota West in West Chester, Ohio. The two were also club teammates for the Miami Valley Xpress. OSU soph. RF Courtney Pruner (Akron/Ellet) and OU soph. 1B/3B Meagan McCuthcheon (Mogadore/CVCA) were club teammates for Ohio Ice. OU assistant coach Jessica Jones is a 2004 graduate of Purdue, where she was the Boilermakers’ catcher and faced Ohio State several times.
WE’RE GOING STREAKING…
Junior Brittany Vanderink enters the doubleheader against Ohio Wednesday with a team-best 12 game hitting streak, which is one shy of her career longest. The longest hitting streak at Ohio State since 1998 when hitting streaks were first kept is 18 games by Anna Smith in 2002.
Six other Buckeyes also take hit streaks into action Wednesday, including a six game streak by senior Nycole Koyano and a four game streak by senior Christina Douglas. Koyano leads the Buckeyes with 13 multiple-hit games this season, including seven in her last 11 games. During that time, Koyano is batting .410 (16-39).
Senior Jamee Juarez has won her last six decisions and is closing in on Ohio State records for career wins (64, record is 67) and innings pitched (664.2, record is 677.1). In five career appearances against Wisconsin, Juarez’s win over the Badgers Sunday was the first of her career among 64 victories.
HEAD COACH Linda Kalafatis
Head coach Linda Kalafatis is in her 11th season at Ohio State and in her 19th season as a collegiate head coach. She is OSU’s all-time wins leader (355-245, .591) and is one of three Big Ten coaches with more than 600 career wins (628-360-2, .634). Six times the Buckeyes have won at least 30 games under Kalafatis, who has guided OSU to the NCAA tournament three times (2002, 2004, 2006). She is assisted by former collegiate All-Americans Ali Viola (Nebraska) and Erica Beach (Arizona State).
RECORD BOOK WATCH
Senior Nycole Koyano owns 101 walks, which rank second in OSU history and are 17 shy of the school record. She ranks second all-time in stolen bases (71) and fourth all-time in runs scored (140, 2 shy of second place). If Koyano leads the Buckeyes in runs this season, she will be the first to do that all four years.
Senior Jamee Juarez ranks third all-time in career RBI (112) and is ranked in the Top 3 in four career pitching statistics, including innings pitched (No. 2, 664.2), wins (No. 2, 64), strikeouts (No. 3, 618, 6 shy of No. 2) and shutouts (No. 2, 22, four shy of No. 1).
Senior Megan Schwab is third all-time with 44 doubles (1 shy of No. 2) and fourth with 17 home runs. Schwab’s 106 RBI are third and her 109 runs scored are seventh. She has started 97 consecutive games for the Buckeyes, the longest streak on the team.
Sam Marder’s 33 walks this season are already an OSU freshman record and her 30 runs batted in are six shy of the record, set by Juarez in 2004. Five Buckeyes rank among the Top 15 in career batting average at Ohio State, including Brittany Vanderink (.335), Liz Caputo (.333), Nycole Koyano (.320), Megan Schwab (.313) and Jamee Juarez (.298).
OSU COMING OFF 4-0 WEEKEND
Ohio State is coming off its first 4-0 start to the Big Ten season since 1990, when the Buckeyes went on to win the league title. In two games each against Minnesota and Wisconsin, Ohio State won close games in the opener but won lopsided decisions in game two. In both of the close games, senior Lauren Daykin had the big hit with a game-tying two-RBI double in a 4-2 win over Minnesota and a game-winning RBI double in a 4-3 win over Wisconsin.
The Buckeyes collected a season-high 13 hits in game-two against Wisconsin Sunday in their first-ever series sweep of the Badgers. During the weekend, three senior batted over .400 at the plate, including Christina Douglas (.667, 6-9), Megan Schwab (.500, 6-12) and Nycole Koyano (.429, 6-14). In the circle, Jamee Juarez and Kim Reeder both went 2-0 with 2.10 and 2.62 ERAs, respectively, while Juarez added a save.
BUCKEYE FIELD TO GET $5.1M FACELIFT
Buckeye Field, home of Ohio State softball since 1988, will get a $5.1 million renovation as soon as the 2007 season is over. The new 1,500 seat stadium will include indoor and outdoor batting cages, a three-plate bullpen, 650-square foot press box, player clubhouse, lounge and locker room, new dugouts, coaches and umpires locker room and a concession area.
### GO BUCKS! ###
