Sophomore catcher Mason Eckelman hopes to follow in the steps of Dillon Dingler, who signed after his junior season and is now in the big leagues with the Detroit Tigers. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
In their current state of 8-20, with just two Big Ten wins after four weeks of conference play, even the minority fringe of Buckeye Nation is asking the obvious questions about baseball at Bill Davis…”What’s happened?”
Last week’s series win over Big Ten-leading Oregon has lit the lamp, it seems, on the current state of the record regarding Ohio State baseball.
Maybe not coincidentally, the three best gates of the year showed up at Bill Davis Stadium last weekend to see the Buckeyes take two of three against the #10-ranked Ducks. And then, another good crowd showed up two days later to watch the Buckeyes lose to West Virginia, 9-6.
Coincidence or not, we’ve heard from those over the weekend who were optimistic to expect more from the trip to Los Angeles, against a team that’s had as much trouble protecting a lead as have the Buckeyes.
Marc, from Upper Arlington wrote: “Surprised that the Buckeyes are 8-20. What happened?”
Doug King, from Toledo: “I’m not surprised, given the men’s basketball season. How can a place with facilities like they have not be better in both?”
Long-time baseball reader Andrew Grigsby recently posted on social media: “I’ve been following this program (baseball) for 26 years and I’ve never seen anything like this. Unbelievable!”
But, believe it. And believe this, too. The reasons behind are more intertwined than the fact of one coach being fired and one being hired, the common excuse put forth by loyalists who blame the loss of Greg Beals and the impact of his replacement, Bill Mosiello.
“I wonder if there’s any seller’s remorse for firing Beals now?” wrote Columbus reader Tom Killilea last week.
Probably not, Tom, because – repeating – the issues with Buckeye baseball are not that far removed with the issues, and the questions, regarding Ohio State basketball.
King added, “Why is it that the best high school football players in America want to play at Ohio State, but the best basketball players (Cooper Flagg and Walter Clayton, Jr.) don’t?”
A Columbus insider acknowledged that same reality this week and put it in bottom-line terms. “You’ve got to win first,” he said.
Classic chicken or the egg…eh? But unlike football, no one speaks up when the issue is baseball; and absolutely – positively – no one writes about it, good or bad. They never have, even in the best of times.
“When we won the national title in ’66 there weren’t even people at the airport when we got back to Columbus,” former Buckeye pitcher Steve Arlin once laughed. “We just got on a university bus and rode back to campus.”
Redshirt freshman Nik Copenhaver is learning the ropes. “He (and others) are getting better with each opportunity they get,” says Buckeyes coach Justin Haire.
But again, the issue of baseball priority is not confined to The Ohio State University. If you ask, others around the conference put the horse before the cart in the same manner.
“Baseball’s not football,” another coach shared last year. “Football pays for baseball, and everything else.”
Another added, “It really doesn’t matter if we win the league or make the NCAA tournament. As long as we run a clean program and don’t get in trouble, no one’s threatened.”
Which, in great part, is why Mosiello left the Ohio State baseball job after two years and went back to Texas.
“Baseball is not a priority in the Big Ten,” he told me, flatly, never mentioning Ohio State.
The baseball issues in Columbus (or the conference) are not as simple as a coaching change…or education…or tradition. If it was Henry Kaczmar would still be playing shortstop and Landon Beidelschies would be the Friday night starter. So Marc, from Westerville, here’s what’s happened.
The athletes that it would take to turn this around in a year or two are getting A LOT of money to go other places – warm places – and Ohio State and fellow conference baseball members don’t have it. NIL is the now the byword of college sports. The term ‘student-athlete’ has been reversed in terms of priority.
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And if they have the kind of cash they need for basketball, those players stay for a year and bolt for the NBA draft, like Malaki Branham. He called it an “emotional decision” when he signed with the Spurs in 2022. He said nothing about time and change, or the quality of the engineering school. He may wished he had. He’s currently averaging 4.3 points and 8 minutes a game in his third season.
The Malaki Branhams in baseball have to stay in school until their junior season, or until they reach the age of 21 before declaring for the MLB draft. Or, as Kaczmar and Beidelschies did (for whatever, but it couldn’t have been education), they simply go where the deal is better.
To Andrew, the reality of the last 26 years is simply this.
There was a time, not so long ago, when Ohio State recruited Zach Dezenzo, Andrew Magno, and Dillon Dingler and they all stayed for three years, developing both baseball skills and mental maturity. Coaching? They played for Greg Beals, but Justin Haire had the same record of success at Campbell where his players, Cedric Mullins (Baltimore) and Zach Neto (California Angels) eventually went to the major leagues.
But now, let this year’s freshman hit .300 and attract the attention of an SEC school with the money to entice, and that player is out the door via the portal. And this is where the insider who related basketball is oh-so-right. To attract and keep those players…you’ve got to win!
Reality? The Buckeyes are trying to win with young pitchers – players – who’ve never played the likes of Oregon, Oregon State, Auburn, and Alabama.
And in the current reality they’re trying to win with young pitchers – players – who’ve never played the likes of Oregon, Oregon State, Auburn, and Alabama. There’s talent on this 2025 Ohio State team, and you see glimpses of it in the growth of Doug Bauer, Maddix Simpson, Lee Ellis, Mason Eckelman, Gavin Kuzniewski, Nik Copenhaver – others. But they haven’t evolved to where they can do it everyday, or predictably. That comes with time, no different than Dezenzo, Dingler, and Magno.
Publisher Sonny Fulks writes OHSAA sports and the Buckeyes for Press Pros Magazine.
At 8 and 20 it’s no time for remorse, or the condemnation of Bill Mosiello, or questions over who they should’ve hired, when. Frankly, it’s discouraging to play in cold, wet conditions knowing that your conference is playing heirloom baseball while others in the South and West are playing hybrid. No one knows that better than Justin Haire.
And I suspect that he will address what he can control in time, and in the same manner as his colleagues around the league.
Yes, you gotta’ win, but it’s tougher in baseball. Don’t believe? Then tell me why they don’t play basketball outside in January.
Why Will Howard came to Ohio State for something more than Tommy’s Pizza.
This is what’s happened. This is what’s happening!
And someone is writing…about baseball.
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