A Look Back on Zach Farmer Memorial Game – Ohio State Buckeyes
4/20/2016 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 20, 2016
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COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio State held a Zach Farmer Memorial Game last Saturday in the second game of the three-game home series vs. Rutgers at Nick Swisher Field at Bill Davis Stadium. Last summer, the Buckeyes lost their teammate and friend Zach Farmer after his battle with leukemia. Joining the team Saturday was his family, including his parents, Larry and Tammy Farmer.
“It is nice having the Farmer family back at the ballpark today,” Ohio State head coach Greg Beals said. “Be The Match is something that is important to us as a program because we know how important it was to Zach and this is our way of continuing his fight.”
During his fight, Zach helped raise awareness for the bone marrow registry through Be The Match, starting a campus drive with help from his Buckeye teammates. The organization provides transplants from volunteer unrelated donors to leukemia patients. Be The Match was on hand Saturday to help fans sign up and swab to become national register donors at the entrance of Bill Davis Stadium.
Before the contest Zach’s father, Larry, threw out the first pitch throwing to 2014 team captain Tim Wetzel, who led the team’s initial efforts of becoming registered donors through Be The Match.
“I was really excited when Coach Beals called – this is a day that is special to all of us because now it is coming full circle in the way we all dreamt it would be, and it is pretty cool having Zach’s dad come out here to throw the first pitch,” Wetzel said. “We are going to bring more attention to Be The Match and that is a big deal. We did a pretty good job of that last year, but it still needs to get better. We need more people to be in the registry from a national persepective ,” Wetzel added.
In all, it was a special day at the park in honor of the left-hander Farmer. Left-handed starting pitcher John Havird wore an orange band on his right arm with “ZF11” taped on. He pitched seven innings and held the RU bats to two runs on three hits.
“I know their family has been through a lot in the past year and I just wanted to pitch well for them and for Zach,” Havird said.
The Buckeyes fittingly scored 11 runs vs. the Scarlet Knights after dropping the opener on Friday night. Redshirt sophomore Kyle Michalik, who now wears No. 11 – the jersey Farmer wore during his freshman season in 2014 – and a member of Zach’s class closed out the game, throwing two scoreless innings on the mound on a beautiful afternoon in Columbus.
For more info, including how to join the registry, visit bethmatch.org.
