The Ohio State University baseball team celebrated its 14-13 victory over Wright State University on Tuesday with Carmen Ohio.Credit: Ohio State Athletics
There are few rivalries that rival Ohio State vs. Michigan, and they are often associated with football, but this weekend marks the biggest baseball series of 2024 for both the Buckeyes and Wolverines.
Since 1999, the two teams have been nearly even against the Wolverines with 35 wins and 34 losses, but if the Buckeyes win three straight in 2023, Ohio State will gain momentum.
Junior starting pitcher Gavin Bruni, who finished last year's season with a win over Michigan, acknowledged the importance of this series.
“It means the world to us. I mean, we go over there and they come down here, we don't want to lose to them. The bottom line is we beat Michigan. So this is It's a big problem,” Bruni said.
Ohio State (18-15, 5-4 Big Ten) is currently tied for fifth place in the Big Ten with Indiana, while Michigan State (18-20, 8-4 Big Ten) , despite the loss, is tied for third place with Purdue. At a conference. Since the start of the Buckeyes' 2024 fall baseball season, head coach Bill Mosiello has preached the importance of Big Ten baseball games, he said.
“The ultimate goal for this club is to be ready to win a Big Ten championship,” Mosiello said. “We have endured battles, so there is not much to fear.”
The Buckeyes' “tough” schedule is the 26th toughest in Division I and ranks among the highest in difficult schedules in the Big Ten Conference. However, the Wolverines' schedule ranks as the 57th toughest, and Mosiello said it's still a very good schedule.
“I want to give them credit. If you look at their schedule, they played a lot of good teams early on, just like us,” Mosiello said. “In other games, they didn't play as well, but in important moments in the conference, they played better.”
Michigan has won four straight in the Big Ten series, including a 6-4 victory over Toledo in midweek. What makes the Wolverines special is that they have multiple two-way players.
Sophomore Mitch Voit will likely pitch against the Buckeyes this weekend, but he will also be a hitter and will be used as a utility man on the field. In terms of batting, he ranks first at Michigan in RBIs and third with a batting average of .312. His 16 doubles are also tied for first in the Big Ten. On the mound, he pitched 57 innings, leading the team with 38 strikeouts and his five wins tied for third in the conference.
Another player who will pitch and hit is junior catcher Will Rogers. Rodgers has been a reliever when he's not at the plate, and his last four games have all been in Big Ten play.
The Wolverines' bullpen is led by Jacob Denner, a southpaw who won the Big Ten Tournament. He pitched 25.1 innings against Big Ten teams, posting a 1.42 earned run average (ERA), 0.88 walks allowed, and hits per innings pitched (WHIP). Both stats are good for third in the conference.
As a team, Michigan is near the bottom of the Big Ten with a .263 batting average and 6.27 career ERA, compared to Ohio State's .272 batting average and 5.68 ERA.
The Wolverines tend to field a different starting pitcher each weekend, so the pitching rotation is unpredictable, but sophomore Kurt Barr, who pitched a complete game against Maryland, is likely to take the mound.
Meanwhile, the Buckeyes' starting lineup for the weekend is almost set. Sophomore ace Landon Beidelskis will compete Friday, followed by Bruni on Saturday and freshman Gavin DeVoto on Sunday.
Beidelskis ranks third in the Big Ten with 61 strikeouts and has a 3.93 ERA in nine starts. Graduate captain Justin Eckhardt leads the Big Ten with six saves.
On the hitting side, Ohio State's lineup consists of five players batting above .290, led by sophomore shortstop Henry Kazmer, who is batting .326.
Before being appointed to Ohio State in 2022, Kazmar was a longtime Michigan State commit. Kazmar said this series is very important to the Big Ten's standing, but there's also a special meaning behind it.
“Obviously, everybody's going to have a shoulder injury, not just me, because this is 'Team Up North.' But we're going to come out and attack and attack And we'll see what happens,'' Kazmar said. .
The 2024 Buckeyes roster features 27 new faces, a Michigan-Ohio State rivalry. Nick Giamarsti, a junior transfer from John A. Logan, said he is looking forward to joining the strong competition.
“It's great. I've always wanted to be in a rivalry like this,” Jamalusti said. “It's going to be a very important weekend for us and I think we have what it takes to win.”
In three of the Wolverines' four Big 1 series, they dropped the first game before coming back and winning both the next two days. As for the Buckeyes, Mosiello said the focus will be on winning each game one at a time in the current series.
“If we can win the first game, it would be really great,” Mosiello said. “We need to start a sweep to win the Big Ten, but again, that’s a long way off, so we need to win the first game.”
The game begins Friday at 6 p.m. at Ray Fisher Stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The next games on Saturday and Sunday will start at 2pm and 1pm respectively.
All three games will be streamed on Big Ten Plus.
