Is there the next Zach Dezenzo (who made his major league debut in 2024) on the 2025 baseball roster? Hard to think of it already, but the Buckeyes open play in just six weeks. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
With a Rose Bowl and the Big Ten basketball schedule immediately on deck, Ohio State baseball comes back in a matter of days to prepare for the February opener…hopefully, to create some priority of their own.
Nobody has even given it a thought. Because……
The Rose Bowl happens next week in Pasadena, and yes, Press Pros will be there, and beyond, should the Buckeyes flip the October 12th script on the Oregon Ducks. And then……..?
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Then the Big Ten basketball schedule, and just how good might that might be with a reconstituted lineup under first-year coach Jake Diebler. 8-4 at this writing, ‘basketball nation’ is still reeling after the Buckeyes pummeled #4-ranked Kentucky last week. Of course, there were the two blowout losses against Maryland and Auburn just prior, so…which team are they?
Publisher/editor Sonny Fulks writes the Big Ten and Buckeyes baseball for Press Pros Magazine.com.
And then, if you ask the average Ohio State fan, as I did on Christmas day, what comes after that….?
You get a mixed bag of football recruiting, the Big Ten basketball tournament, maybe they make the NCAA tourney (wouldn’t that be nice?), and then spring football. But not one mention about the opening of the Division I baseball season on February 14, in Tucson, when the Buckeyes kick off the 2025 campaign against Arizona State.
Like it or not, baseball is a distant third in terms of competitive priorities. Out of sight, and out of mind.
And if you go to the latest posts on D1Baseball.com, the so-called bible of college baseball, you’ll find fall assessments of Indiana, Michigan State, Michigan, Nebraska, Southern Cal, UCLA, Purdue, Penn State, Iowa, even Minnesota and Northwestern…but not one word (as of this date) about the 2025 Buckeyes, a team that actually made the conference tournament last May and beat the #2 seed, Nebraska, in its opening game.
So, six weeks out from flying to Tucson, there’s no question that Justin Haire and his roster will be rooting for a national title in football, and a strong first season in basketball under Jake Diebler. But Haire and Company should be eyeing another, different challenge, and that’s how to escape what feels like baseball anonymity within the Big Ten. How to take the first steps of a baseball re-emergence with a few solid returning parts, a talented freshman class, and an unknown shuffle from the transfer portal? And trust it. They’re thinking already.
And, are you kidding? Comparing baseball to football, suggesting it as a priority just because the season opens in a month and half? Well, ask Tyler Pettorini, Trey Lipsey, Matt Graveline, Nick Giamarusti, Blaine Wynk and Ryan Miller?
Who?
Exactly!
Those six constitute the core of returning talent that finished 29-26 last year, and improved to eighth in the final Big Ten standings before losing two out of three in the conference tournament. And at least three of the above would be pre-season candidates for all-conference honors in 2025. But first, some familiarization is required to even crack the ‘Nation’s’ consciousness – if your expectations on Christmas Day are centered on one thing, and one thing only.
Tyler Pettorini hit .309 with 9 homers last year…Lipsey returns for an anticipated senior campaign after fighting injury for the past two…Graveline is hands-down one of the three most athletic catcher/athletes in the Big Ten…Giamarusti is a lightning rod on the bases…and Blaine Wynk was a dominant fire-breather out of the bullpen last year, and a name that rival coaches raise with any mention of the 2025 Buckeyes.
Add to that recruits like Alex Koelling (from Div. I state champion Mason High School)…Maddix Simpson (from Bishop Verot High School, Fort Myers, Florida)…Ty Fox (from Brother Rice High School, Michigan)…Anthony Scheppler (San Marin High School, Novato, California)….and Tannis Lange (Waukesha High School, Waukesha, Wisconsin), and there’s some quality and intrigue as to which, if any, of these plebes can become the next Dominic Canzone, Zach Dezenzo, Dillon Dingler or Matt Graveline to impact as a freshman. The above, and others, all had their moments during fall baseball.
Can starting pitching hopeful Jake Michalak emerge, among others, to flip the script of priorities for the Buckeyes, come April?
Add, as well, transfers like Lee Simpson (South Carolina), Marc Stephens (Gulf Coast Community College), and Reggie Bussey (Oakland University), all of whom showed they can play.
And then, consider the possibility of an emergence from athletes like Zach Freeman, Mason Eckleman…and pitchers like Chase Herrell, Luke Carrell (University of Oklahoma), Jake Michalak, and Hunter Shaw.
None of these names are here for no reason. Once upon a time they were all headline names on recruiting websites and now stand in the wings to prove that the hype was real. And in terms of priority, the challenge to them is just as real – as important – as winning next week is to Will Howard. Just not as prioritized.
D1 didn’t write it (at least yet), but this team is athletic enough, and with enough pop, to score some runs. The question, as we posed in our December 4 post, is who will pitch, and how well?
Can Blaine Wynk make the transition from closer to starter?
Can Chase Herrell take the next step as a sophomore and weekend rotation guy?
Can a Luke Carrell, who had some of those fall moments we mentioned earlier, plug a hole?
Can Jake Michalak harness what might be the best arm on the staff into a strike-throwing weapon?
And the biggest question of all…who might emerge as that player-to-be-written-about-later?
I swear to you, it’s the best part of conversation about Ohio State baseball over the next six weeks, because remember. None of them…Dominic Canzone, Jack Neely, Dillon Dingler, Zach Dezenzo, and Ryan Feltner…came with a guarantee.
And all of them played in the major leagues in 2024!
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