The Ohio State baseball team huddles up prior to the start of their game against Hawaii on March 23. Ohio State won 7-5. Credit: Casey Cascaldo | Lantern File Photo
The calendar has flipped to March, but March Madness is not the only thing to be excited about in Columbus as Ohio State baseball returns after a 359-day hiatus.
The Buckeyes return to the diamond Friday after its 2020 season was cut short due to COVID-19, opening their 44-game season against Illinois with a four-game weekend series at Fluor Field in Greenville, South Carolina.
Senior left-handed pitcher Griffan Smith assumed that his teammates echoed his main goal for the season.
“I want to make it to Omaha,” Smith said.
Ohio State’s last time in Omaha, Nebraska, was the 2019 Big Ten Tournament that the Buckeyes miraculously won as the No. 7 seed, earning an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Buckeyes were bounced in their Nashville Regional and did not qualify for a return to Omaha for the College World Series.
With no Big Ten Tournament this year granting an automatic bid, the Buckeyes cannot afford the slow start offensively like in last year’s 14-game season in which they mustered a collective .242 batting average.
Former catcher Dillon Dingler, who was drafted No. 38 overall by the Detroit Tigers in the 2020 MLB draft, will be missed anchoring the top of Ohio State’s lineup. The former Buckeye backstop raised the team’s average by an impressive 11 points with his .340 clip — second best on the team — with five home runs and 14 RBIs, both team highs.
Head coach Greg Beals — who is entering his 11th season leading the Buckeyes — said he’s excited to see junior infielder Zach Dezenzo and redshirt seniors catcher Brent Todys and infielder Connor Pohl make an offensive leap this season, compensating for the loss of Dingler’s dangerous hitting presence.
“I think our offense has potential to be deep,” Beals said. “Not necessarily a Dingler-marquee guy in the lineup, but a balanced lineup that can do some things.”
The Buckeyes’ pitching staff, headlined by redshirt junior left-handed pitcher Seth Lonsway, is looking to continue off of last season’s success in which they led Division I with 12.7 strikeouts per nine innings.
Lonsway was named a second-team preseason All-American by College Baseball Newspaper Dec. 22, 2020, and to USA Baseball’s Golden Spikes Award Preseason Watch List Feb. 18 while being pegged a team captain on Monday.
Despite the preseason accolades, Lonsway said he wants his efforts to extend off the field as well, becoming a leader for the young pitchers still adjusting to the speed of college baseball in any way that he can.
“We still have a lot of good interaction while we’re at practice and even outside of practice,” Lonsway said. “Texting, communicating, doing pitchers meetings on Zoom — just kind of trying to bounce ideas off of guys looking at video.”
Lonsway is complemented by Smith, who’s a fellow team captain, and junior right-handed pitcher Garrett Burhenn in the trio’s third season together manning the Buckeyes’ pitching rotation.
Burhenn was roughed up in his four starts in 2020, garnering an 8.02 ERA — the highest on the team. Despite last season’s struggles, he was selected to the Big Ten’s Preseason Honors List Thursday.
Smith’s four starts last season were in stark contrast to Burhenn, managing a 2.76 ERA and 16 strikeouts in 16.1 innings pitched.
Illinois poses the first challenge for the Buckeyes, priding themselves on a difficult combination of pitching and defense for opposing hitters.
Despite losing right-handed ace Ty Weber, who signed with the San Francisco Giants in June 2020, the Illini still have a strong core of arms; most notably, freshman left-handed pitcher Cole Kirchsieper who was 3-0 with a 1.35 ERA in 20 innings pitched last season.
The Illini also picked up sophomore-transfer right-handed pitcher Andrew Hoffman, who has already been named to the Big Ten’s Preseason Honors List. In the COVID-19-shortened season at John A. Logan Community College, Hoffman was 5-0 with a 2.08 ERA and 46 punch-outs in 26 innings.
The biggest offensive threat Illinois poses is from sophomore shortstop Branden Comia, who hit .426 with an on-base plus slugging percentage of 1.228, mashing two home runs with 10 RBIs in 13 games.
Beals said the team’s excitement to take the field on opening day is high due to the long duration between games, but that his team needs to calm their nerves for success.
“I’ll say it Thursday and I’ll say it Friday before the game, we need to take a deep breath and slow down and make sure we got ourselves where we want to be to compete at our best,” Beals said.
The Buckeyes’ quest to an NCAA Tournament appearance starts this weekend at 3 p.m. Friday. Game 1 of Saturday’s doubleheader starts at 10 a.m. with first pitch of Game 2 to be determined, as Ohio State rounds out its weekend with a 10 a.m. start on Sunday. All games will be streamed live on BTN+.
