Before anyone throws the baby out with the bath water, read and consider some realities about what we’ve seen in schedule, inexperience, and how the culture of college baseball is as fluid as the Buckeyes’ record.
This column is a must read for anyone who’s directly or casually connected with Ohio State baseball in 2025.
For coaches, fans, parents, players, loyalists who read about the Buckeyes on this site…even someone whose license plate bracket reads, “How Firm Thy Friendship”.
On a humbling weekend where the team up north – the bitter rival – outscored the Buckeyes on alumni weekend by a margin of 47-8, there was was the customary honoring of past champion teams, yes.
And privately – quietly – there was no shortage of alumni asking the obvious question when you’re 11 and 33, “What’s going on?”
Some readers of the site in attendance were kind to ask. One from Scioto County said, “You’re the one who writes about it, so why is this program suddenly 11-33?”
Well first, to address his question, there is plenty of reason to write about them at 11-33, as there would be if they were 33-11. If you believe in all the marketing slogans, the traditions, and the words, summer’s heat and winter’s cold, now is no time to turn your back…because it’s pretty damned cold. Ohio State is the Mount Everest of Division I college baseball in the state of Ohio, and it deserves to be profiled to would-be athletes who aspire to play college baseball at the highest level. And to the questions about what’s going on, there are at least three realities that relate directly to 11-33.
There is the issue of three coaches in four years, also known as instability. And you don’t have to look far to find alumni and fans alike who still question the firing of the popular Greg Beals, with Big Ten Tournament titles in ’16 and ’19, and regional tournament appearances in ’16, ’18, and ’19.
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Bill Mosiello, by my standards, was a brilliant baseball man. He just didn’t understand Ohio State traditions and relationships, nor did he seem to care. It’s questionable as to why he ever took the job in the first place, but he didn’t linger once he was convinced that Snowbelt baseball lacked the priority that came with baseball in Texas.
Those who didn’t like Mosiello pined for an ‘Ohio’ man who knew the state, its high school baseball, and was willing to relocate his family. It didn’t hurt to have a proven pedigree, as well, and Justin Haire checks every one of those boxes. Among his coaching contemporaries he’s as respected for his body of work at Campbell as anyone available to hire last June. He’s different from both Beals and Mosiello, and I like him because I think he sees what he sees, I think he’s patient, and I sense that he’ll be confident to do it well and do it once for the sake of obvious adjustments to come.
It’s hard to lose talent through the portal like Ike Cadena (2024) and not have a lingering impact on the remaining roster.
Two, as already written, you cannot lose as much as they lost through the portal without it taking both a positional and psychological toll on the remaining roster. You cannot lose your shortstop, your best starting pitcher, your centerfielder, your best freshman, and two of your best freshman pitchers and automatically move on. In fact, for the sake of development of last year’s recruiting class you might count it as a lost year. There’s that many of them gone.
Three, in the decade I’ve covered Buckeyes baseball I’m increasingly dubious of the culture of amateur baseball that college baseball depends upon for replenishment. One of the issues that I question over 11-33 is not the talent at hand, but the lack of experience at hand.
And have those being thrown in the breech played enough baseball prior to Ohio State to play against the likes of Alabama, Arizona State, Auburn, Baylor, NC State, Coastal Carolina, and Oregon State? For many it’s the first back-to-the-wall competition they’ve ever known. No other team in the Big Ten began the season with that kind of challenge and it clearly shows. Give me the experience of having played more baseball – the experience of having learned through repetition on the field – as opposed ‘travel ball’ where you pay to play without learning, or a so-called scouting service telling you how good you are.
“There’s a difference in throwing a pitch and executing a pitch. The sooner you quit one and do the other the sooner you become a pitcher.” – hall of famer Warren Spahn
In those years when I hung around minor league baseball I got to meet people like hall-of-fame pitcher Warren Spahn, who worked for years as an organizational pitching instructor for the Los Angeles Angels. Spahn had a reputation for being patient with developing young talent, and he was famous for saying, “There’s a difference in throwing a pitch and executing a pitch. The sooner you quit one and do the other the sooner you become a pitcher.”
And yes, there have been injuries to projected starting pitchers like Chase Herrell and Blaine Wynk. Spahn also won 363 games in the big leagues, a major league record for lefthanders, and was famous for saying that he never pitched a game in his life when something didn’t hurt.
Freshman talent, like Alex Koelling, would have contributed significantly (IMO), but has spent the season rehabbing a repaired knee.
This team, for sure, needs a reset and that’s going to come in the off-season. That said, there’s talent up and down this roster with this year’s freshman, sophomore class, and junior class. And the proof of what Justin Haire brings to the table will be the next class, along with what he can recruit from the portal.
Publisher Sonny Fulks writes OHSAA sports and the Buckeyes for Press Pros Magazine.
To their credit, the upperclassmen like Graveline, Pettorini and Lipsey prove that there’s a baseball culture at Ohio State that can develop talent to compete at the next level. So if you want to play where Zach Dezenzo, Dillon Dingler, and Dom Canzone are playing, why not come to Mount Everest?
I’ll close by reminding every one of you that two years ago Maryland swept the Big Ten Tournament and was a regional tournament participant. They’re currently 15th in the Big Ten standings.
And just last year UCLA finished dead last in the PAC 12 with a conference record of 9-21. This year they’re second to Iowa in the Big Ten standings with a record of 17-7, and 34-13, overall. So it can happen, and that suddenly – in the span of a year.
To the alumni, fans, coaches, players, and critics, these are smart kids; and you learn by playing. But not always overnight.
A lot of them know that by now.
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