Around the Oval: Bill Mosiello Captures His First Big Ten Win, The Columbus Blue Jackets Honor Sophie Jaques With Ceremonial Puck Drop and Carly McGinty Competes at Augusta National

By Chase Brown on April 3, 2023 at 1:05 pm
Sophie Jaques, Blue Jackets
Twitter / @OhioStateWHKY
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Compared to recent weeks with postseason tournaments and championship games, it was a relatively quiet seven days for Ohio State's Olympic sports.

Still, Around the Oval, Eleven Warriors' one-stop shop for coverage of the Buckeyes' non-revenue programs, is here to provide updates for teams outside the school's football and men's basketball teams. In this edition, we offer rundowns on baseball, women's hockey, women's golf and several other programs.

Let's dive in.

Baseball

Ohio State baseball captured its first Big Ten win of 2023 over the weekend when it defeated Minnesota, 6-2, on Saturday. The victory snapped a five-game skid for the Buckeyes, who had previously won seven straight and 10 of 11 contests before the losing streak started.

The victory also proved critical in more ways than one, as the four-run win served as skipper Bill Mosiello's first Big Ten win in his initial season as head coach of the program.

As the winning and losing streaks mentioned above could probably infer, it's been an up-and-down season for Ohio State after the first 26 games. The Buckeyes are a .500 ballclub to this point in the year, starting 2-5, improving to 12-7 before faltering to 13-13 overall with a 1-6 mark in conference competition.

With 30 games left in the regular season, keeping Ohio State's metaphorical head above water will challenge Mosiello even with his baseball acumen from over three decades of collegiate coaching experience. While Iowa is the only top-25 team in the Big Ten, the conference is full of competitive and talented squads beyond the Hawkeyes, including Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, Maryland and Nebraska.

For the Buckeyes to succeed in the league, Mosiello must rely heavily on his veterans. Pitcher Isaiah Coupet (3-2, 3.25 ERA, 52 SO) needs to remain consistent on the bump, and so do Ohio State's hitters, namely catcher Cole Andrews (.343/.465/.571), infielders Marcus Ernst (.288/.400/.525) and Nick Erwin (.317/.434/.417) and outfielder Kade Kern (.317/.434/.545).

Ohio State's first opportunities for improvement will come in a one-off, non-conference matchup with Kent State (18-9, 6-3 MAC) on Tuesday at Bill Davis Stadium in Columbus. The Buckeyes will then travel to East Lansing, Michigan, for a three-game series against Michigan State from Friday to Sunday. The Spartans are 16-9 overall with a 4-2 record in the Big Ten.

Women's Hockey

Sophie Jaques was a do-it-all kind of player during her tenure with Ohio State women's hockey. The first Buckeye and second defenseman overall to win the Patty Kazmaier Award, Jaques helped lead the Ohio State program to its first national championship in 2022 and a runner-up finish in 2023.

The Columbus Blue Jackets honored those accomplishments over the weekend as the professional hockey organization welcomed Jaques to Nationwide Arena for the ceremonial puck drop before the Blue Jackets' regular-season matchup with the Ottawa Senators.

In five seasons at Ohio State from 2018-23, Jaques appeared in 172 contests for the Buckeyes, collecting 61 goals and 95 assists for a total of 156 points. She also held an on-ice plus-minus of 113 and blocked 224 shots. In addition to the Patty Kazmaier Award, those statistics garnered Jaques two WCHA Defender of the Year honors and several All-WCHA accolades.

Beyond the ice, Jaques has been a standout student at Ohio State and earned four WCHA All-Academic Team awards, four Academic All-Big Ten honors and was named an Academic All-American on multiple occasions.

While Ohio State is expected to remain a national championship contender so long as  Nadine Muzerall leads the program, the veteran head coach will be challenged to replace Jaques in the lineup next season and beyond. Knowing all that Jaques accomplished in the scarlet and gray, that will be a difficult task for Muzerall, even with her proven talent as a program builder.

Women's Golf

A tradition unlike any other, the Masters – one of the PGA Tour's four major tournaments along with The U.S. Open, The Open Championship and The PGA Championship – will occur from Thursday to Sunday at Augusta National Golf Course in Augusta, Georgia.

Before the men's professional golfers and large media contingent made way for the Peach State, however, 72 international women's amateurs competed in a 54-hole tournament on the historic course. Ohio State's Caley McGinty, the world's No. 25-ranked women's amateur, was one of the 72 that participated in the event.

Across three days, McGinty shot a 4-over, 220 at the event, finishing within the top third of all competitors at 20th place. The Bristol, England, native's best round came on Thursday, in which she fired a 2-under 70 in the second round. She carded a 3-over 75 in rounds one and three.

At Ohio State, McGinty won the Westbrook Invitational earlier this season. The individual title was her first as a Buckeye and sixth overall, having won the first five championships at Kent State and Oklahoma State from 2019-22. In Ohio State's most recent tournament, the Mountain View Collegiate, McGinty shot three under-par rounds and set an 18-hole program record in the final round when she hit a 9-under, 63.

McGinty and Ohio State women's golf will compete this week at the Chevron Silverado Showdown at the Silverado Country Club in Zephyrhills, Florida. The Buckeyes will compete with other top programs, such as Arizona, Arizona State, California, UCLA and USC, among others, at the event.

Other News and Notes

  •  The No. 16 Ohio State men’s lacrosse team fell to No. 11 Penn State, 17-9, in University Park, Pennsylvania, on Sunday. The Buckeyes (5-5, 1-1 Big Ten) dropped their first conference road game of the season, a loss that came one week after Ohio State defeated then-No. 11 Rutgers, 11-7, under the lights at the Ohio State Lacrosse Stadium.
  • The No. 2 Ohio State men’s tennis team knocked off Nebraska, 7-0, and Wisconsin, 6-1, at the Ty Tucker Tennis Center over the weekend. The Buckeyes are now 14-0 this season at home and 21-2 overall, their only losses coming to No. 7 Texas at the ITA Indoor Nationals and No. 5 South Carolina on the road.
  • The No. 7 Ohio State men’s gymnastics team (11-10, 1-3 B1G) wrapped up the 2023 Big Ten Championships on Saturday at the Covelli Center. Donovan Hewitt (rings), Kameron Nelson (vault) and Caden Spencer (high bar) all earned second-team All-Big Ten recognition for their efforts in the competition.
  •  The No. 16 Ohio State women’s gymnastics program closed its 2023 team season with a program record score of 197.750 at the NCAA Regionals in Norman, Oklahoma, on Saturday. The Buckeyes finished the meet in third place – .100 points shy of second-place Kentucky and .100 ahead of fourth-place Alabama.
  • The No. 13 Ohio State men's volleyball team (17-9, 9-3 MIVA) earned its second-consecutive road victory with a 3-1 win at McKendree on Saturday. With the win, the Buckeyes won their sixth-consecutive match, equaling the longest win streak for the Buckeyes since a 6-0 start to the 2020 season.
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