Sophomore Gavin Kuzniewski gets the Friday opening start against the St. Louis Billikins. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Believe it, the opening weekend of the college baseball season is here. And Justin Haire’s Buckeyes have dialed it down a notch from previous openers, hoping to erase some bad juju and get 2026 off to a positive start.
Buckeye baseball coach Justin Haire openly admits that Friday’s opener with the St. Louis Billikins of the Atlantic Ten Conference is a considerable shift from last year’s opening weekend in Phoenix against Arizona State.
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The Buckeyes were swept in that three-game series – scored a lot of runs, gave up a lot of runs, and lost a projected starting pitcher in Blaine Wynk, who subsequently was shut down for nearly the entire 2025 season with shoulder stiffness.
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And subsequent to opening weekend they traveled to Jacksonville the following weekend to play the likes of North Carolina State, Coastal Carolina, and Alabama before coming home with a bruised record of 1-6, and some bruised pitching stats.
“Obviously it’s important for us to get off to a better start,” Haire said last week, talking about the opening series with St. Louis, who won a three-game series against the Dayton Flyers impressively last spring, in Dayton. “And it was realistic for us to take a different approach with those first two weeks.
“We want to be tested, and we welcome competing against the top teams,” he added. “But we also need to have a more positive start.”
They should have that opportunity with the Billikins, a member of the Atlantic 10 Conference and projected to finish in the top five of the A-10 standings by season’s end. If you can equate opening up against Arizona State in their own ball park as diving off a 50-foot cliff, then think of shifting to St. Louis this weekend as easing yourself into the shallow end of the pool.
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Under first-year coach Miles Miller, St. Louis finished seven games over .500 last year (33-26), and 18-12 in conference play under then veteran head coach Darin Hendrickson. Hendrickson was fired following the season after 18 years serving has head coach.
And the Billikins will bring some offensive confidence to Pensacola, Florida, where the Buckeyes will play them in the Double A home ballpark of the Miami Marlins. Infielders Riley Iffrig and Chase Beattie return as the Billikins’ top two hitters from a year ago when they hit .268 as a team and scored 395 runs, an average of nearly 7 per game.
They also return veteran starting pitching, including Friday starter Josh Cunningham, who posted a 6-2 mark last year with an ERA of about 4.5 runs per nine innings, and averaged about three walks per nine innings.
And pitching is where Ohio State will have its own greatest focus this weekend, hoping to identify some dependable starting candidates through the first three non-conference series before coming home on March 6 for the Big Ten opener against UCLA.
“We have more guys (pitchers) that are going to contribute in a meaningful way – that we can count on – to give us a chance to win. ” – Justin Haire
“We have more guys (pitchers) that are going to contribute in a meaningful way – that we can count on – to give us a chance to win. ” said Haire, hoping for a positive progression out of names like sophomore Gavin Kuzniewski, Pierce Herrenbruck (JC transfer), and true freshman Jude Fisher (Strongsville, OH).
Kuzniewski was 3-5 in 56 innings last year as a freshman, and one of the more dependable weekend candidates. Kuzniewski, Herrenbruck and Fisher will get the opening starts this weekend, in that order.
And one would guess that a lot of candidates are going to see the mound in a test to see who can throw strikes, execute pitches, and prove that they have progressed.
It’s not cliff diving, but it is a fair test, and against a team that finished as a semi-finalist in last May’s Atlantic 10 tournament.
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Other Notes:
If you want to watch, this weekend’s opening series will be televised on the Big Ten Plus network, with times posted on the Buckeyes official schedule (www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com).
The Buckeyes are seeking their first opening day win since 2023 when lefthander Ike Coupet and reliever Justin Eckhardt combined on a six-hit gem to shut out UConn in Port Charlotte, Florida. They fell to Boston College in the 2024 opener, and to Arizona State last year, in Phoenix.
While this weekend’s series is not being broadcast on radio, their Big Ten schedule will be available again to hear this spring with Tyler Danburg and long-time analyst Bob Spears.
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