First-year coach Justin Haires shares some early optimism recently during workouts at Bill Davis Stadium. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Seven days and counting from the first pitch of 2025, Buckeyes baseball boss Justin Haire addresses our questions…and some of yours. Are they ready to play, and what’s the plan?
Columbus, OH – First things first. After sixty years of anticipating opening day for baseball, it’s still exciting as it was when Pete Rose was a rookie second baseman for the Reds in 1963.
The story goes…of how he confronted the incumbent in spring training, a veteran named Don Blasingame, and told him, “Pack your bags, Blazer. I’m taking your job.”
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That’s what opening day’s all about. Fresh…change…new – the promise of ‘next year’ becoming manifest.
With those three words it describes what Ohio State baseball fans are excited to know about 2025 – fresh, change, and new. And it’s no coincidence that it describes the attitude of first-year coach Justin Haire and his staff, equally excited to deliver the path to get there – beginning opening day, next Friday night, against Arizona State, in Phoenix, Arizona.
“We’re pretty excited…I’m excited,” he said this week. “That’s not a very gooey answer, I know, but there’s a balance about seeing how we look playing against someone else, what that measuring stick looks like, remembering that opening day is the starting line, not the finish line.
“It’s how we measure up, and find out what we’ve forgotten to work on. And it marks the start of a new journey…for this program, for my family, for me and the staff. So much has happened since last June (28th) to get here. Now it’s time to let your hair down, see where you are, and let the games guide your next steps.
“But am I excited for opening day?” he adds on a personal note. “Yeah, I’ll think of the routines I went through as a high school player, or in college (at Bowling Green). The days leading up…you get my shoes cleaned up, your numbers and initials on the inside of your hat, and make sure your uniform is laid out. If you don’t truly enjoy being around the game and going through those steps to get ready…then you’re just too cool to understand. It’s year 22 for me as a coach, I still get to be around a kid’s game, and I still get the chills and excitement of a new year. I’m ready to go.”
So much for the overture, and now the opera. Opening weekend (did we mention just seven days away?) starts with a critical look at pitching. Who…how long…and how many arms can you assess in those first three games? What can you project for those first three weeks…Arizona State, NC State, Coastal Carolina, Alabama, Auburn, et. al. It’s a most critical time, one month, irregardless of record, to gauge who can deliver come the start of conference play, just thirty days removed.
Last year’s closer…this year’s starter. Junior Blaine Wynk seeks to make his case for the weekend rotation next weekend in Phoenix.
“To a certain extent we’re still figuring out some of those details,” Haire begins. “Blaine Wynk is going to play a huge role for us, so we want to get him some work at the front of the rotation. And then Chase Herrell, who was exceptional last weekend in our outdoor workouts. First time I had gotten to see him throw live…because he didn’t really throw much in the fall. He was good and fun to watch.
“And then there’s a host of six or eight other guys – good arms – that are on the cusp of making solid impressions. We want to see how they perform over those two or three days. We need to see what roles they can fill. We got a look last weekend, and we’ll get a better look this weekend (if weather permits). I don’t know that you’re going to have a box score where anyone goes six or seven innings on the first weekend, but you might see a lot of guys go two, three, and four innings. We want to see a lot of different looks. And luckily I think we’ve got a good mix of left and right – people who can do some different things. I know they’re going to be excited because it’ll be their first opportunity to show they can be lead guys at this level.”
When then-coach Bill Mosiello set up this schedule he wanted to know how Ohio State baseball would compare to some of the elite programs in NCAA baseball history – Arizona State, Southern Cal, Oregon State, etc. ASU is, in fact, where Reggie Jackson played, Barry Bonds, Rick Monday…where hall of fame coach Bobby Winkle won three of their five NCAA national titles (’65, ’67, and ‘1969). But the Sun Devils played to a 32-26 last year, missed the NCAA regional tournament for a record third year in a row, and like the United States Marines, they’re looking for a few good men, especially pitchers.
A team that hit .313 and clubbed 102 home runs last year, they pitched to a 6.53 earned run average and gave up 102 home runs. None of that, at this point, concerns Justin Haire.
“No, at this point we’re still 100% focused on what we need to do to get better. Our staff has worked ahead to prepare for their hitters and pitchers, and they do a tremendous job. We know they’ve got a number of new guys. But I’ve spent zero time looking at their roster or video. not until next week. Then I’ll take two or three days and look at what the staff has put together.
“The biggest boost for our guys will be to go out and play like we’re capable of playing, regardless of who we play. If we do that we should have an opportunity to win any game. Just be the best version of who we can be and maximize on our abilities.”
The ball flies in Phoenix…Tyler Pettorini gets the glad hand after a home run last February against Arizona State.
If anything serves as a confidence boost it’s the reality that this batting order, with familiar pop and added speed, should score runs. In fact, with many of the same bats in the order, the Buckeyes scored 36 runs in that four-game series with ASU last February, splitting the four-game set. And in the light air of Phoenix, the ball does fly in the Sun Devils home park, Municipal Stadium.
“I’ve never been there,” says Haire. “But I’ve definitely got confidence in our ability to score runs. We’re athletic, our guys have put in a lot of work, and we’ll have confidence from our preparation. Will it show up in the first weekend? No one knows that, but no one else in the country knows about night one, either. But if you project out over the course of 56 games this year, and if we can stay healthy, you would hope that we can have one of the better offenses in the Big Ten.”
His words are not hollow. The so-called bible of Division I baseball (D1 Baseball.com), does some projecting of its own, calling the Buckeyes a team that “…on any given night, this experienced lineup can go toe-to-toe with the top teams in the conference, but limited depth means they’ll need to stay healthy and have some arms emerge to compete.”
And depth will be one of the things yet figured out, starting, of course, on opening weekend.
But ‘coach-speak’ aside, the program’s immediate future centers around pitching – Blaine Wynk, Chase Herrell, Luke Carrell, Tanis Lange, Sahil Patel, Jake Michalak and inevitably, the proverbial player to be written about later. A BIG PART of the excitement is that of seeing who might do the unexpected – an Isaiah Coupet on opening night, 2023.
“We have to be healthy, keep working, and we’ll make the adjustments,” Haire promises, looking even beyond opening weekend. “To this point they’re responded to every challenge and normally that’s a pretty good sign of guys who’ll play like they’re capable of playing.”
The starting line…not the finish!
Columnist Sonny Fulks writes OHSAA sports and Ohio State baseball for Press Pros Magazine.com.
Ignored by mainstream media, as we wrote recently, Division I (Big Ten) baseball suffers in the pecking order of NCAA priority, while looming in the adjusted reality of contemporary baseball culture. As the minor leagues shrink, the college game becomes increasingly important as a developmental platform for players like Pittsburgh’s Paul Skenes, who in a year went from LSU to becoming the National League’s Rookie of The Year.
The starting line…and the finish – added excitement to Justin Haire’s responsibility for a kid’s game.
It’s assumed he’ll pack some Kiwi for the desert, ’cause your shoes have to be clean for opening night. Your uniform still has to be just so…!
God forbid you forget your stirrups, or your belt, because Mom can’t get them there in time.
Otherwise, the new coach of the Buckeyes is ready to go.
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