First-year coach Justin Haires marks the Buckeyes’ third coach in four years and brings with him a solid record of building, and success, at Campbell University. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
As we’ve previously written, the baseball schedule breaks in just one month, and the early dates will say a lot about the 2025 Buckeyes and their ability to adjust on the fly.
Incoming baseball coach Justin Haire is significant for his ability to project optimism. Doesn’t matter if you go three-for-four or strike out four times, his glass is always half full.
Get ’em tomorrow.
And he’s going to need that because the early baseball schedule, on the road, beginning February 14 in Tempe, is enough to challenge anyone’s optimism. In a word…tough!
An improved, and more experienced Arizona State (from the team the Buckeyes split with in 2024) looms as the opening act, followed by a weekend in Jacksonville, Florida against Coastal Carolina (Sun Belt), NC State (ACC) and Alabama (SEC).
Then to Arlington, Texas the following week and dates with Oregon State (PAC 12), Baylor (Big 12), and Auburn (SEC).
And skipping forward a week to the start of Big Ten play, it doesn’t get any easier, with Indiana on the road (March 14-16), and at Iowa the following week (March 21-23), two of my original teams picked to finish in the top eight of the league.
And, of course, you add what was formerly PAC 12 teams to the Big Ten schedule when the Buckeyes play Oregon at Bill Davis on March 28-30, then go to Los Angeles April 4-6 to play Southern Cal.
So, those first 24 games are hardly against sisters of the poor, and even if they were, playing on the road for fifteen of the first eighteen is going to add additional threat to the challenge. And following our Christmas Day post on baseball priority, a half dozen have responded with questions pertaining to the Buckeyes and the Big Ten now that the conference has absorbed USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington.
First, let’s address some irony. Former pitching coach Sean Allen is now the pitching coach for Southern Cal, who the Buckeyes will see on April 4. And former operations man Damon Lessler is now a full assistant coach with the University of Washington, in Seattle. Both were members of Bill Mosiello’s staff in 2024.
Picture last year’s pitching coach, Sean Allen, in a Southern Cal uniform. And you can…he’s now the pitching coach for the Trojans.
And along with irony…reality. Conference competition just got much, much better with USC, UCLA, and Oregon. And a new influx of money, facilities and commitment at Washington has the Huskies on track to flip their sagging fortunes in recent years. Oregon, by the way, won 40 games last year, and finished third in PAC 12 conference play. USC put on a late surge to finish fourth in the PAC 12, 31-28, overall. UCLA was down last year, but has been a consistent winner for years in West Coach baseball, and won the College World Series in 2013.
But to those who follow the Buckeyes baseball regularly on this site…one asked the 64-thousand dollar question in a December 27 response: “Why aren’t they better with facilities like Bill Davis, and with all the money they have?. This is ‘The’ Ohio State. What’s the problem?”
If it were just that simple…!
You’re right about the facilities, because when it was built 25 years ago Bill Davis ranked as the #1 ballpark in the Big Ten…by a long shot. And it’s still in the top five when you consider all the tangibles – parking, ease of access, overall seating, lights, and state-of-the-art artificial playing surface. The intangibles, though, are due for an update.
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But even ‘The’ Ohio State can’t do anything about weather, and the cold temperatures of March and April keep a lot of people away, not only in Columbus, but the rest of the Big Ten, as well. Where Big Ten baseball really suffers is for the fact of atmosphere, and when the Buckeyes played at Purdue in 2022 it was so cold that someone joked about wanting to go to ballgame on Saturday, but turned around when they saw people ice fishing in the outfield.
So, the cry in northern baseball everywhere is to level the NCAA playing field by starting the season later and playing into July. But that suggestion is about as popular among southern schools as a family of seven finding out that it’s expecting triplets.
The addition of USC (coach Andy Stankiewicz, above), UCLA, Oregon and Washington portend to make conference baseball in the Big Ten significantly more challenging.
And then there’s what’s called the “green salad of salvation”…. money. NIL losses crippled last year’s roster. There’s no question that proportionately, college baseball has to do more with less, compared to the revenue sports like football and basketball, while parents fume that a starting pitcher is no less an athlete than a starting quarterback.
Big Ten baseball, not just Ohio State baseball, needs to be marketed in order to 1) get better, and 2) pay for itself. If you don’t market you don’t have expectation, or attendance. And expectation is what drives the crowd for college football and basketball, which pays for every other sport on campus. Minnesota won three national titles under Dick Siebert in the 60s, but according to alumni, barely acknowledged baseball in the 21st century and 1,300 career wins by recently retired John Anderson. And it showed.
Baseball, and softball, are caught in the middle, a fact that Iowa baseball coach Rick Heller claims is avoidable.
“If we played in warm weather we could sell out our new stadium for baseball, every game,” says Heller. “Baseball could actually pay for itself, and that’s money that doesn’t have to come out of the general athletic budget. I would at least like to try.”
And in Columbus there’s the question of direct competition with the Triple-A Clippers, who would play opposite college baseball at Bill Davis during April and May. But an Ohio State game is a fraction of the price, concessions are generally cheaper, and parking at Huntington Park is a nightmare. It’s a better family deal, and again…it’s Ohio State. O-H!
The issues of money for every Division I school is a clear and present danger. Ohio State reportedly took in $279 million dollars in 2023, and yet projects future shortfalls in operating budget due to increasing costs and revenue sharing with athletes. So, don’t expect too much, too soon.
But you can expect baseball…and if not in person, on this website as long as that money holds out.
Am I personally excited about the 2024 season? Let me put it this way.
Publisher and columnist Sonny Fulks writes Buckeye baseball for Press Pros Magazine.com.
I’m excited about the record Justin Haire brought with him. He’s a builder, and I personally witnessed his brand three years ago when he brought Campbell University to Bill Davis and put on an offensive show, outscoring the Buckeyes 21-2 in a two game set.
I’m excited about seeing the size of the fight in the dog, to borrow from the old adage. It’s not going to be easy this spring, and Haire and Company expect that – those first five weekends!
And in baseball every game, every series, and every challenge only sheds light on opportunity to improve. That’s what I’d expect from Haire, the third coach in four years. Continuity is paramount with anything. I expect the build.
Closing, I like competition – love the challenge of seeing the Buckeyes play something better than sisters of the poor, not that I have anything against sisters.
And if you get knocked down…? So what?
Get ’em tomorrow.
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