Without much time to practice outside because of wintry weather, the Ohio State baseball team showed some lingering effects when it opened its season last weekend.
The No. 22 Buckeyes won its opener against Lamar in the Tournament of Champions Cardinal Classic in Beaumont, Texas, with the help of solid pitching from Scott Lewis, but dropped the next two games on the schedule while waiting for their bats to defrost.
As if things were not bad enough, OSU found itself up against pitchers who had the benefit of a couple games under their belt. In their final two games of the tournament, the Buckeyes lost 5-1 to No. 30 Oklahoma and 18-3 to No. 29 Southwest Missouri State. The beating at the hand of the Bears featured a 10-run ninth inning for the Buckeyes to remember on the way home.
“The pitching that we faced was outstanding, the teams we faced are outstanding — all high-caliber teams,” said OSU coach Bob Todd. “It was a heck of a challenge, especially since we hadn’t even been on the field.”
The Buckeye bats were alive for the opener, and the Buckeyes received a quality outing from Lewis. In seven innings, he struck out 11 batters to help silence the host Cardinals.
“I was just challenging them with the fastball and I was able to get the lead, and pitching with the lead is a lot easier,” Lewis said. “I just got comfortable out there and kept coming after them.”
Infielder Brett Garrard went 2-for-4 in the winning effort and scored a pair of runs, while outfielder Mike Rabin went 2-for-5.
From there, the wheels fell off for OSU. They mustered just four runs against a pair of ranked squads.
The first of the losses came at the hands of Oklahoma. The Sooners cranked out all of its runs before the Buckeyes got anything going against Oklahoma starter Buddy Blair.
In the sixth inning, OSU designated hitter Paul Farinacci started off with a double and scored off of a fielder’s choice by Garrard — the club’s only run.
“On the second day we came out very flat, and I don’t know how we managed to come out flat on the first weekend,” Garrard said. “We just didn’t play well, and then Sunday we ran into a team that was just red-hot with the bats. Anything we were throwing up there, they were just smoking it.”
In the series finale, Southwest Missouri State pounced on everything Buckeye hurlers Nate Smith, Greg Prenger, Matt Davis and Mike Mudsen offered. The ninth-inning scoring spree included 12 straight hits off the bats of the Bears.
OSU center fielder Steve Caravati was able to get to Bears’ starter Bob Zimmerman, a likely first-round pick in this year’s draft, by going 2-for-4. Caravati also scored a run.
One of the biggest disadvantages the Buckeyes face in the early season is lack of live-game experience. No. 4 Arizona State is already 24-1 this season, while OSU is struggling to get outside for practice.
“It’s catch-up playing at a northern school,” Garrard said. “You’ve got to expect something like that and fight through it and find a way to overcome it.”
The break in the cold weather Tuesday allowed the Buckeyes to practice outdoors on artificial turf, which should help them as they head back into action. OSU travels to Lafayette, La., for the Mardi Gras Ball, with games against University of Louisana-Lafayette, McNesse State and Wichita State.
