Sophomore Landon Beidelschies is the projected starter on the mound for the opening Friday against Boston College. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
The Buckeyes tee it up for the season number 124 Friday afternoon with a 3 pm (ET) date with Boston College.
Scottsdale, AZ – Let’s put it in proper context…that this is the most important opening day in recent baseball history at Ohio State University.
Why?
The Sheward-Fulks agency, in Jackson, Ohio, proudly supports the Buckeyes.
Because it signals the first-year report card of program growth under second-year coach Bill Mosiello, who makes no bones about what he wants his imprint to be – pitching and defense – to complement an offense projected to score 6 runs per game.
Second, this early West Coast swing against premium competition justifies the obvious efforts of the last year to recruit the kind of talent, locally and nationally, to make Ohio State a sustainable force in Big Ten baseball, as Mosiello suggested at his June, 2022, hiring news conference.
Third, pitching was the Achilles’ heel for a team in 2023 that had to rally in the final three weeks to win nine straight, sweep Michigan, and finish with a winning record of 31-25. But more concerning…the team’s 11th-place finish in the Big Ten league standings. Mosiello has fretted that fact all during the offseason, he doesn’t dodge it, and it’s paramount on his to-do list in 2024. They’ve got to be better.
And to be better they have to pitch, starting with opening day sophomore starter Landon Beidelschies (0-2, 4.15 era in 30.1 innings), last year’s closer and hoped-to-be weekend starter, this year.
“The stuff is there,” says pitching coach Sean Allen. “It’s just a matter of seeing how far he can carry that through the game as a starter.”
Second-year coach Bill Mosiello seeks to flip the script from the Buckeyes’ 11th-place finish in the Big Ten in 2023.
Mosiello, recruiting coordinator Andrew See, and Allen combed the country following last spring to bring more talented arms to campus, and to the consensus of most Big Ten rivals, they were successful. Freshmen Gavin DeVooght, Chase Herrell, Zach Brown, and Jake Michalak (to name four) appeared on the the wish list of a lot of schools. They chose Ohio State, in large part, because there’s opportunity to prove themselves, and prove themselves early.
But it’s foolish to rely on talent that lacks experience, which is why Beidelschies, Colin Purcell (Texas A&M, Corpus Christi), and junior returner Gavin Bruni are so important to the results with these opening games. All are capable, all have experience, and they’ll be the default by necessity over 56 games while those young inexperienced arms come of age.
JC transfer Hunter Shaw (Lansing Community College) is another name that dazzled in the JUCO ranks in 2023, and Shaw is going to get a good look against the likes of one of these teams – Boston College, Brigham Young, USC, Arizona State and Grand Canyon – and that soon.
Again, the competition is intense here this week, and the opportunities overwhelming. Throw strikes, record outs, and it’s like making a deposit in your baseball bank account. You’re going to earn interest.
Publisher/Editor Sonny Fulks writes Big Ten and Buckeye baseball for Press Pros Magazine.
The opening lineup will not be a great surprise – expect to see Trey Lipsey in left, LSU transfer Josh Stevenson in center, and Mitch Okuley in right. The infield will probably have Tyler Pettorini at third, sure to have sophomore Henry Kaczmar at short, newcomer Joe Mershon at second, and Tennessee transfer Ryan Miller (Dublin, Oh, Jerome HS) at first. Sophomore Matt Graveline will catch. Kaczmar and Graveline, by the way, were both members of last year’s All-Big Ten freshman team.
But the focus will be on the mound – who pitches, who produces, and who gives an impression that they’re as big as the moment and part of the solution to what we saw in 2023.
Can this pitching staff throw strikes!
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