Ohio State sophomore outfielder Kade Kern (7) swings at a pitch during the Buckeyes’ game against Michigan State Saturday at Bill Davis Stadium. Ohio State won 13-5. Credit: Casey Smith | Assistant Lantern TV Sports Producer
Although he had the same rocky start as the Ohio State baseball team, sophomore outfielder Kade Kern recently found his groove.
He had a stretch of eight games where he did not record a hit earlier in the season, but after sitting out four games between March 17 and March 27, Kern has again become one of the Buckeyes’ key hitters as the team looks to rely on him through the rest of the season.
“We all have high expectations for Kade Kern,” head coach Greg Beals said. “The game of baseball is built around failure. He came out of the lineup for a couple of games to sit and watch and slow down the game a little bit. But give him credit; never did the work here ever change whether he was in or out of the lineup. That will never change about him.”
The Archbold, Ohio, native made an immediate impact upon his arrival to Ohio State. As a true freshman, he started in all 42 games and led the team in hits, on-base percentage and stolen bases.
However, the beginning of this season didn’t get off to the hot start like his freshman year. After recording a hit in each of his first three games this season, Kern went through a cold stretch of games where he only reached base three times in 26 at-bats. Afterward, Beals used Kern sparingly in batting order to help him make adjustments at the plate.
“There’s a lot of adjustments I needed to make,” Kern said. “Having just one at-bat a game for a few games helped me really reassess and adjust what I needed to do. It gave me more time to work outside of the game as well. I really figured out what I needed to work and improve on.”
The adjustments worked, as over his past 10 games he has 19 hits while batting .475 over that span. Over that stretch he has also driven in 14 runs and hit four home runs, translating all of his adjustments into results on the field.
Kern said the midweek games against nonconference opponents have helped greatly in making adjustments. After playing a season with an all-Big Ten schedule, mostly on weekends, Kern said he’s used the midweek games to adjust to different pitchers while maintaining what works best for him.
“I don’t really mind who I see,” Kern said. “I have that same mentality going out there, no matter who the pitcher is: trying to crush the ball. It’s fun seeing guys we’ve never seen before. It’s just fun going out there and having a good mentality every at-bat.”
Beals said the consistency from Kern has made it easier to make decisions when it comes to the lineups. With the team looking for more consistency on both offense and defense, having reliable starters makes his decisions more manageable.
The Buckeyes are well into their conference schedule and picked up a series win over Michigan State last weekend, and they will look to rely on Kern to be a factor in the lineup every game. However, that doesn’t stop Kern from playing for something bigger than himself, signified in the two wristbands he wears on his left wrist.
“One says, ‘I’m second,’ and the other says, ‘Powered by Jesus,’ ” Kern said. “Just try to stay in my faith. We pray out there before every game. There’s a bunch of us on this team just trying to play through Christ, just remembering there’s something bigger than us to play for.”
