Graduate transfer Luke Carrell struck out 7 of the 9 batters he faced in Game One of the Fall Practice finale series. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
The Gray team took the first game of the weekend Scarlet and Gray World series on Friday, a revealing experience of players fighting back from adversity in an attempt to win a job and one more crack at college baseball.
Columbus, OH – On a sun-dominated Thursday afternoon, Ohio State football coach Ryan Day, sporting tennis shorts, was spotted walking down Lane Avenue from the OSU tennis complex to the football complex.
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It is a near-daily ritual — a couple sets of tennis before football practice for Day as the Buckeyes prepare for a Saturday meeting with Purdue.
Meanwhile, just a short punt from the football complex, the lights were on at Bill Davis Stadium/Nick Swisher Field, home to the Ohio State baseball team.
Hall of fame writer Hal McCoy covers the UD Flyers and Ohio State baseball for Press Pros Magazine.com.
Baseball? In November? Didn’t the season end when Aaron Judge muffed a fly ball in the World Series?
Well, college baseball doesn’t have spring training so the Buckeyes practice for six weeks in the fall and end it with a three-game intrasquad series they call the Scarlet & Gray World Series.
And it’s needed more than ever this fall because the Buckeyes have a new coach familiarizing himself with his personel.
He’s Justin Haire, a 43-year-old native of Hamilton, taking over at OSU after 14 years as coach at Campbell University, where he won 319 games, four times winning more than 30 games and twice winning more than 40.
Haire is synonymous with success.
Hang on Sloopy’ floated into the baseball stadium because Day has it played over the public address system during football practice and it sounded as if the OSU band was strewn across the outfield.
Starting pitching hopeful, sophomore Jake Michalak, pitched reliably through three innings.
The baseball game progressed as the band played on. It was a six-inning game with the roster divided in half and the Grays beat the Scarlets 5-2.
Hits were as scarce as a Hippy haircut.
There were only seven and the Scarlet were one out away from being no-hit when Ty Fox doubled with two outs and Sal Mineo singled him home.
Sal Mineo? That’s a famous name from the 1950s, a heart-throb actor who starred in the movies ‘Rebel Without a Cause’ and ‘Exodus,’ before he was stabbed to death in a Hollywood alley.
But OSU’s Sal Mineo, no relation, is freshman outfielder from Slippery Rock, Pa.
It was easier, and sometimes painful, to get on base without a hit. There were 15 walks issued, eight by the Grays and seven by the Scarlets.
The pain was inflicted by Scarlet pitchers. They hit five batters. Grays leadoff hitter Nick Giamarusti was hit his first two times at bat.
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Grays starting pitcher Ryan Butler opened the game by hitting Giamarusti and ‘Swift’ Nick stole second. Mark Stephens doubled him home and Trey Lipsey walked.
Ryan Miller singled for a run and Lee Ellis pushed home a run on a ground ball and it was 3-0.
Gray’s Reggie Bussey made this dazzling catch in centerfield to save a hit in the third inning.
And game over. Miller was the game’s only batter with two hits and reached base three times.
Pitching was mostly a walk on the wild side, except for Grays pitcher Luke Carrell, a graduate transfer.
Carrell faced nine Scarlet hitters and struck out seven. The 6-foot-2, 205-pound lefthander, came into the game with one out in the third and runners on second and first.
He struck out Zach Freeman and Anthony Scheppler. He went 1-2-3 in the fourth with two strikeouts and whiffed three of the four he faced in the fifth.
Haire was nearly bliss over the chance for his players to perform and the opportunity for him to see what he has…or doesn’t have.
“Man, I like that our guys enjoyed being out there and being in uniform,” said Haire. “Getting after it and competing – that’s a hugely important piece and something we want, that our guys feel the enjoyment of playing baseball.
“For the most part, our pitching staff did a great of competing, especially (pitcher) Jake Michalak after a tough second inning (three walks),” he added.
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Luke Carrell was The Story of the Day.
“He was exceptional,” said Haire. “His slider plays and he is gonna be a nice little weapon for us.
And he has an exceptional story to tell.
Nick Giamarusti swipes a base in the first inning that contributed to a 3-0 Gray scoring binge.
“He is a great story,” said Haire. “He has been hurt for a couple of years. He has already finished his undergrad schooling and is in grad school.
“He is in Fisher School of Business, which is not an easy program to get into,” he added. “So he has two years left. He got hurt at Oklahoma and has been training there in a facility for a year. It has been two years since he put on a uniform and pitched, so he doesn’t take it for granted.”
While Carrell is in the Fisher School of Business, he knows how to school hitters on a baseball field with his slider. He pitched at Oklahoma and got hurt. He pitched at Northwest Florida College and got hurt. He pitched at Oklahoma again and got hurt.
“It has been a long time,” said Carrell. “I got injured my sophomore year at Oklahoma. I got cut and went JUCO (junior college) at Northwest Florida and partially tore my shoulder.
Alonzo Paul takes an extra base in the fourth inning of the Gray team’s 5-2 win.
“I took a year off, then went back to Oklahoma and graduated,” he added. “I took another year to rehab my shoulder. I pitched some this summer and coach (Haire) recruited me and here I am to finish it up.”
With all those setbacks, most players would put the glove in a closet and forget pitching. Not Carrell.
“It has been a journey,” he said. “I knew I was good enough and I just needed to hone in on a few things and I believed in myself.”
Carrell’s slider Thursday had the hitters flailing at a cool breeze that wafted through the batter’s box.
“That’s my best pitch,” he said. “I’ve really worked on it and it has continued to progress this fall. My first outing this summer I could not throw a strike. Each week, though, I kept building on it.”
He struck out seven of the nine hitters he faced, mostly with the disappearing slider and said, “I was fortunate that they had eight or nine batters that were lefties so it worked out well. I was getting ahead with my fastball and finishing them with the slider.”
The Scarlet & Gray World Series continues Friday afternoon and concludes Sunday afternoon.
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