The home opener for Ohio State baseball kicks off the team's ninth season at Bill Davis Stadium at 2:05 p.m. today at Bill Davis Stadium against in-state foe Toledo.
The Buckeyes (12-4) are currently riding a nine-game winning streak after a perfect 8-0 road trip on their spring break in Bradenton, Fla. During the trip, OSU picked up wins over Northern Iowa, Bucknell, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Illinois-Chicago, and beat Cornell and Dartmouth twice.
"We started off 4-4 and played some real tough games early in the season, then spring break came along and we had a schedule where we thought that we were better than each team we were playing and we performed well each day down there," said junior designated hitter Cody Caughenbaugh, who is second on the team with a .362 batting average.
Leading the Buckeyes at the plate over break was sophomore second baseman Jason Zoeller, who now has a .411 batting average. While in Florida, Zoeller batted .449 with three doubles, one triple, two home runs and 10 RBIs.
"I was just trying to get good pitches and the people behind me were doing the same thing," Zoeller said. "Everyone is just clicking right now and it's going great."
Other Buckeyes with hot bats are freshman leftfielder Matt Angle, who is batting .349 with 15 hits and four RBIs, and sophomore rightfielder Wes Schirtzinger, who is batting .328 with 21 hits and six RBIs. Also hot are junior shortstop Jedidiah Stephen, who is hitting .327 with 16 RBIs and a team-best four home runs, and senior first baseman Paul Farinacci, who has 13 hits and a team-high 17 RBIs.
"Any time you can see live pitching for nine days straight, you can't beat that," Zoeller said. "Especially with how cold it is up here and us not being able to get outside a lot of times. Staying down there in the warm weather definitely helped us out."
If warm weather is a sign of success for the Buckeyes, than things are looking good for today's game against the Rockets. Temperatures are supposed to approach 70 degrees.
"I think we're real excited, especially with this warm weather rolling in," Caughenbaugh said. "It's going to be nice to get the season kicked off here at Bill Davis Stadium and we're looking forward to it."
The Rockets enter today's game with a 7-13 record after defeating Michigan State 9-7 yesterday in Toledo. Before their game against the Spartans (8-10), Toledo had a team batting average of .249 and an earned run average of 7.14, while its opponents have a .321 batting average and a 3.98 ERA.
Leading Toledo is junior infielder Dan Stong, who leads the team in batting average (.333), runs scored (16) and hits (24). Freshman outfielder Drew Hoisington is batting .316 and has a team-high seven doubles.
"As a coaching staff we really stress that Ohio State is a target anytime anybody from in-state plays Ohio State, and we're going to get their best shot," OSU coach Bob Todd said of Toledo. "We know that they are going to give us their best effort and we have to be ready for that challenge."
Despite finishing last season 36-25 and second in the Big Ten, the Buckeyes were snubbed from the NCAA Tournament and OSU coaches say that early non-conference losses could have been the reason why.
"What we have to do is go out and play good baseball and play the best we can," Todd said. "If we do that then I think we will like where we end up."
Senior right-handed pitcher Mike Madsen (1-1) will get the start for the Buckeyes but will see limited action after battling tendonitis in his right shoulder during spring break. Four or five other pitchers are expected to join Madsen in the game.
"We've got to keep them sharp mid-week and we are going to try to get them ready so that they feel comfortable when it comes time to go over to Champaign and play Illinois in the conference opener," Todd said of the pitching staff.
OSU leads the all-time series against Toledo 20-6, which dates back to 1934. The Buckeyes scored a school-record 38 runs in a 38-15 win over the Rockets on March 8, 2002 in Albuquerque, N.M., the last time the two teams met.
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