Baseball: A Sneak Peek at The First Three Trips of 08 – Ohio State Buckeyes
2/15/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
COLUMBUS, Ohio The Ohio State baseball team will open its 125th season of baseball next weekend at the Service Academies Spring Classic in Millington, Tenn. The tournament will be the first of three, three-game tournaments the team will play before heading to Florida for a seven-game spring break schedule in Bradenton. Here is a peek at the Buckeyes’ first three weekends of the 2008 season.
Opening Weekend
Buckeyes travel to Memphis as college baseball opens Feb. 22 around the country.
The team’s 2008 action starts Friday, Feb. 22 and runs thru Sunday, Feb. 24. The tournament site, USA Stadium, is the former training location of the United States Olympic baseball team. Last year’s tournament champion, the Memphis Tigers, are back to try and overcome a challenging field of competitors including Air Force, Arkansas State, Navy, Ohio State, and Seton Hall. The Buckeyes last saw action at the Services Academies Spring Classic in the 2000 tournament where they finished with a 3-1 record and defeated Air Force 5-4, staking their claim as tournament champions.
Service Academies Spring Classic:
Fri. Feb. 22 – Ohio State vs. Arkansas St. 2:00 p.m.
Sat. Feb. 23 – Ohio State vs. Memphis 2:00 p.m.
Sun. Feb. 24 – Ohio State vs. Seton Hall 11:00 a.m.
Ohio State vs. Arkansas State
Ohio State’s 125th season opener will mark the first ever meeting between Ohio State and the Arkansas State Indians. Last year, in his fifth season at the helm, head coach Keith Kessinger led the Indians to a ninth-place finish in the Sun Belt Conference and an overall record of 23-32. Arkansas State returns 15 lettermen and welcomes 14 newcomers to the team in 2008. One of their top returning lettermen is infielder and right-handed pitcher Brandon Eller, who batted .347 with four home runs and a .466 slugging percentage in 2007. Arkansas State’s top returning pitchers are right-hander Nick Lambert, who posted a 5-2 record last year with an ERA of 5.80, and Jett Jones, who finished 2-4 with a 5.66 ERA.
Ohio State vs. Memphis
Saturday afternoon the Buckeyes will face off against tournament host the Memphis Tigers, who finished in first place at last year’s Service Academies Spring Classic. Although Ohio State has posted only a 1-4 record against Memphis all-time, the Buckeyes last faced the Tigers in 2000 and finished on top in the competition, 11-4. Ironically, Ohio State once lost four times to Memphis over the course of two days in March of 1977. Memphis finished 36-27 overall in 2007 and posted a 12-12 record in Conference USA where they ended up in fifth place. Head coach Daron Schoenrock welcomes back 18 letterwinners including seven position players and 12 pitchers. The top returning pitcher for Memphis is six-foot-three-inch junior Scott McGregor who went 5-4 with a 6.33 ERA in 2007. Leading the offense for the Tigers is senior center fielder K.K. Chalmers who batted .289 with 15 doubles, seven home runs, and 38 RBI last season. Chalmers also was 33-for-38 in stolen bases in 2007 and is Memphis’ all-time steals leader.
Ohio State vs. Seton Hall
Rounding out the weekend for Ohio State on Sunday are the Seton Hall Pirates. Overall the Buckeyes are 2-4 when facing off against the Pirates with the last of that action coming in 2007 where the Buckeyes were defeated 6-5 in Tampa, Fla. Seton Hall put together a .500 season in 2007 by finishing their year at 25-25. The team was 9-15 in the Big East Conference where they ended up 12th. Head coach Rob Sheppard will look to improve on that in his fourth season as Pirates coach. Leading the offense for Seton Hall is senior infielder Mark Pappas who batted .314 with three home runs and 16 RBI. Six-foot-five-inch senior right-hander Keith Cantwell leads the pitching staff into 2008 after an impressive sophomore season. Cantwell put together a 4-1 record while striking out 64 batters in just over 73 innings pitched. He also posted a slim 2.95 ERA.
Weekend No. 2
Three games in College Station, Texas, include two vs. Top 25 teams.
The Buckeyes will continue their tournament road trip in 2008 heading out west to familiar territory at College Station, Texas for the Dominos Pizza Aggie Baseball Classic. The action will run from Friday Feb. 29 thru Sunday March 2. Although having never before participated in this early season tournament, the Buckeyes are familiar with the venue, having suffered season-ending losses in the 2007 NCAA Regionals at C.E. “Pat” Olsen Field, home of host Texas A&M. Ranked as high as No. 12 in the nation’s four major preseason polls, the two-time defending tournament champion Aggies will look to repeat once again against the likes of No. 21 Arkansas, Louisiana Tech, and Ohio State. For the Buckeyes, facing two top 25 teams in only the second week of the season will be a solid test for coach Bob Todd’s team.
Dominos Pizza Aggie Baseball Classic
Fri. Feb. 29 – Ohio State vs. Texas A&M 7:00 p.m.
Sat. March 1 – Ohio State vs. La. Tech 1:30 p.m.
Sun. March 2 – Ohio State vs. Arkansas 12:00 p.m.
Ohio State vs. Texas A&M
Friday night lights will shine down on Olsen Field Feb. 29 as Ohio State takes on the highly touted Texas A&M Aggies in the first game of this year’s tournament. Although the Buckeyes have accrued an overall record of 9-6 against the Aggies since 1948, they’ve lost their last two meetings including last year in the NCAA Regionals. That contest at Olsen Field saw A&M put up 10 runs to Ohio State’s four in the Buckeyes’ last game of 2007. Rob Childress returns for his fourth season as head coach and looks to improve on the Aggies very respectable 48-19 overall record in 2007. A&M’s senior utility man, preseason All-American Blake Stouffer, looks to carry over his success from last season where he batted an impressive .398 with 12 home runs, 85 RBI, and 22 stolen bases. The Aggies’ top returning pitcher, sophomore Scott Migl, is coming off an impressive freshman season in which he threw 74 innings while finishing with a 7-3 record, posting a 3.77 ERA and issuing a scant 18 base-on-balls.
Ohio State vs. Louisiana Tech
Saturday’s showdown, game two of the tournament, is between Ohio State and the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs. The game is expected to be another tough match-up for the Buckeyes. Louisiana Tech leads the all-time series 2-1 with the last meeting taking place just over 10 years ago. Standout junior infielder Drew Bunting returns from a stellar season in 2007 where he finished with a .411 batting average and .473 slugging percentage. Fellow junior Dylan Moseley takes the mound for the Bulldogs as their top returning pitcher for 2008. Last season Moseley put together a 7-4 record with a 4.07 ERA. Head coach Wade Simoneaux is back for his seventh season at Louisiana Tech. He led the team to a 35-24 overall record last season.
Ohio State vs. Arkansas
Finishing up the weekend on Sunday will be a noon game between Ohio State and the Arkansas Razorbacks. The game will be televised live by Cox Sports Television which has a mostly-southern broadcast footprint that includes parts of Florida, most of La., parts of Texas, Arkansas, Macon Ga., and even Northern Virginia. This is the first time in the 125 years of Buckeye baseball that Ohio State will meet Arkansas. At the helm for his sixth season as Razorbacks’ coach is Dave Van Horn. Van Horn will takes his 21st-ranked (ESPN/Sports Weekly) Razorbacks into battle with some help from the likes of junior third baseman Logan Forsythe. Forsythe hit nine home runs in 2007 as well and hit .347 with a .556 slugging percentage. Returning for his senior year, leftfielder Casey Coon swings back into action after hitting 71 RBI last season and batting .312. The Razorbacks’ top returning hurler is right-handed pitcher Shaun Seibert. In five appearances last season Seibert laid down an 0-1 record with an ERA of 3.79.
Weekend No. 3
The team heads to Florida…the first of two trips to the sunshine state.
Ohio State’s third weekend of the young season will have the team playing in West Palm Beach, Fla., as part of the fifth annual Papa John’s Palm Beach Challenge. The challenge will be held throughout the month of March with teams from around the country playing a series of three games each weekend of the month. Ohio State will be playing games Friday, March 7 through Sunday, March 9 at the Santaluces Sports Complex, a four-field wheel complex that is the former minor league spring training home of the Montreal Expos. The Buckeyes will be playing games against Air Force, Maine and Connecticut.
Papa John’s Palm Beach Challenge
Fri. March 7 – Ohio State vs. Air Force 7:00 p.m.
Sat. March 8 – Ohio State vs. Maine 7:00 p.m.
Sun. March 9 – Ohio State vs. Connecticut 12:00 p.m.
Ohio State vs. Air Force
Friday night’s game will be the second match-up all-time between Ohio State and Air Force. Back in 2000 the Buckeyes beat the Falcons, 5-4, in the only previous meeting between the two teams. Air Force and head coach Mike Hutcheon are coming off a tough year in 2007 where they finished 8-44 overall and 0-23 in the Mountain West Conference. One of only four seniors returning for 2008 is outfielder Chay Derbigny, who batted .301 with three home runs in 2007. Representative of the rest of this very young squad is sophomore K.J. Randhawa. In his freshman season Randhawa batted .280. In accordance with the rest of the team, the Falcons are short on experience when it comes to the pitching staff. Of the pitchers returning for 2008 junior Jake Petro is the top performer with a 2-10 record in 22 appearances and a 5.87 ERA in 2007.
Ohio State vs. Maine
Saturday evening the Buckeyes will be facing the Maine Black Bears for the first time. Steve Trimper is returning for his third season as the Black Bears’ head coach in 2008. The team compiled a 22-31 record for the 2007 season and went 12-11 to earn a fourth-place finish in the American East Conference. Senior infielder Curt Smith will look to match his 2007 season in which he batted .351 with eight home runs and 48 RBI. Junior pitcher Alejandro Balsinde will be leading the pitching staff in 2008. Last year Balsinde led the team in appearances with 20 while compiling a 3-5 overall record and a 4.40 ERA.
Ohio State vs. Connecticut
Finishing up the Palm Beach Callenge for Ohio State will be Sunday’s game against the Connecticut Huskies. The Buckeyes lead the all-time series with Connecticut by a margin of 3-2. The last meeting between these two teams took place in March 2007 with Ohio State coming out on top 2-1. At the helm for the Huskies is head coach Jim Penders, who returns for his fifth season. In 2007 Connecticut recorded 10 wins and 14 losses while finishing eighth in the Big East Conference. Overall the Huskies went 34-27. Returning for his senior year, first baseman and left-handed pitcher Matt Karl is looking to match his 2007 season in which he batted .301 with four home runs. Karl also made 22 appearances on the mound in 2007 and compiled a 2-2 record with 29 strikeouts and a slim 3.19 ERA. At the top of the rotation for 2008 is sophomore left-hander Greg Nappo. The young hurler went 4-3 in 12 appearances with 45 strikeouts and a 3.50 ERA last season.
By Josh Cook
###OhioStateBuckeyes.com###
