Ohio State baseball opens up its season on Friday with the first game of a three-game set against Arizona State at 8:30 p.m.
The two teams matched up early in the year last season, with the Buckeyes taking two of four, and offense taking the driver’s seat for the entire series.
It will be head coach Justin Haire’s first year with the program after Bill Mosiello left to return to TCU after just two years with the Buckeyes. The two have different coaching styles, but both had the same goals as the leader of the program, which is to make it back to the NCAA tournament, and become a mainstay in the event.
Haire has led some very good offenses over the years when he was at Campbell, and he is hoping to bring that to Columbus.
“It’s important for us to identify what our guys biggest strengths are and then try to maximize their strengths within the bigger picture of our offense,” Haire told BSB. “We like to call it building a hard to kill offense. We want to be able to pressure the opponent in as many ways as we possibly can, whether that’s on the bases, in the short game or being able to drive the ball in the gaps or over the fence.”
While there has been some offensive success in Bill Davis Stadium, the Buckeyes have had some trouble the past few years building consistency on the mound. Landon Beidelschies, the team’s ace from the 2024 season, transferred to Arkansas over the offseason, and Gavin Bruni was selected in the 17th round of the MLB draft.
Blaine Wynk — who had an impressive summer in the Cape Cod League with a 2.55 ERA in 24 2/3 innings — is getting the ball to begin the season against the Sun Devils, and Haire believes there are a lot of arms that could take up innings throughout the year.
“Blaine Wynk, Chase Herrell and Jake Michalak are three returners that are going to earn some opportunities early on to get that starting rotation going,” Haire said. “They’re all very capable. They all have good stuff, good arms and have the ability to go through a lineup a couple of times and do some really good things.
“The beyond that you have guys like Hunter Shaw, Luke Carrell, Nik Copenhaver, Sahil Patel and Doug Bauer, another group of four to five guys that have the ability to go six to nine outs and hopefully get us deeper into games.”
After a 29 win season last year, a Big Ten tournament berth and a win in the conference bracket, the Buckeyes’ goal is to make it back to the NCAA tournament this year. Haire knows they will have to win some tough nonconference games early in the year to get some momentum going.
“Well we have to play well in the nonconference for sure,” Haire said. “Our conference is going to be a meat grinder, and rightly so. There are a bunch of really good teams and programs, so we need to do a good job of playing well in the conference, but we’ve scheduled well in the nonconference.”
Photo Courtesy of Ohio State Athletics
