Around the Oval: Women's T&F and Women's Rowing Take Second at Their Big Ten Championships and Buckeye Baseball is Hot Before Its Season Finale Against Michigan

By Chase Brown on May 15, 2023 at 1:05 pm
Baseball
Ohio State Dept. of Athletics
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The postseason has arrived for Ohio State's spring Olympic sports.

In this week's edition of Around the Oval, Eleven Warriors' one-stop shop for coverage of the Buckeyes' non-revenue programs, we check in with Ohio State women's track and field, women's rowing, baseball and several other teams as they push for the postseason.

Over the weekend, we also covered Ohio State men's tennis, the No. 3 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, and its 4-2 victory over No. 15 Arizona on Saturday at the Auer Tennis Complex in Columbus. With the win, the Buckeyes advance to the NCAA quarterfinals to face No. 6 Georgia on Thursday at the UTSA National Tennis Campus in Orlando, Florida.

Women's Track and Field

The Ohio State track and field program wrapped up its 2023 Big Ten outdoor championships on Sunday, with the women's team capturing a runner-up finish and the men's team earning 10th place.

After the meet, the Ohio State athletics department released the final scores for the Buckeyes' competitors. The press release also included quotes from director Rosalind Joseph, who was hired to replace the legendary Karen Dennis last summer. Joseph said she is hopeful the men's team can continue to improve in the coming weeks and believes the women's side excelled in multiple events over the weekend.

"On the men’s side, I know the score doesn’t reflect it, but we have some really good pieces to build on," Joseph said. "On the women’s side, they fought hard in every event entered. We asked a lot of our women sprinters, and they not only delivered but excelled, posting some of the best times in Big Ten history. Our field events stepped up to squeak points they weren’t projected to gain, and our distance runners showed why we can contend with distance events in this conference.

"It was a well-balanced effort from the team. ... I'm thankful to my coaching staff and support staff for their dedication to getting the team this far, primed and ready to go, and I look forward to the remainder of the championship season."

Five first-place finishes bolstered Ohio State's women's team at the Big Ten Championships, including two relay teams and three individual winners.

Ohio State's first title came in the 10,000m from Addie Engel, a Big Ten women's cross country champion last fall. The Buckeyes then took first in the 4x100m relay, where Yanique Dayle, Nya Bussey, Alyssa Marsh and Leah Bertrand combined to run a Big Ten record 43.17. Bertrand followed up that performance with a title in the 100m, recording an 11.15 in the sprint, while Dayle also won the 200m with a time of 22.87. Ohio State's 4x400m relay team of Dayle, Marsh, Bryannia Murphy and Jayden Wood rounded out the champions with a 3:29.25.

As for the men's team, Ohio State was without any Big Ten champions. However, several runners earned points for the Buckeyes, including Zidane Brown, Kashawn Baptiste, Evan Matthews and Alex Kenish in the 4x400m, Chanler Robinson in the 400m hurdles and Kenish in the 800m, among others.

Next week, Ohio State will compete in the east NCAA preliminary rounds from May 24-17 in Jacksonville, Florida, where the Buckeyes will look to advance competitors to the NCAA Championships in Austin, Texas, from June 7-10.

Women's Rowing

The Ohio State women's rowing team fell short of a Big Ten Championship on Sunday at Eagle Creek State Park in Indianapolis, earning five fewer points than Michigan to finish second place at the event.

The Buckeyes entered the final race of Sunday requiring a first or second-place finish from its rowers to win the conference title. However, Indiana (6:25.565) ended the race a split-second before Ohio State (6:25.837), which resulted in a bronze medal, third-place finish for the scarlet and gray.

Despite the loss, Ohio State has many positives to take away from the competition. The Buckeyes were dominant in several categories, including event titles for the Second Varsity Eight, Second Varsity Four and First Novice Eight, and runner-up awards in the Second Novice Eight, Third Varsity Four and First Varsity Four. Additionally, Anneta Kyridou was named a first-team All-Big Ten honoree, while Jessy Vermeer and Maria Kyridou earned second-team recognition.

Those performances and accolades bode well for the program as it prepares for the NCAA Championships later this month, as Ohio State is expected to be one of several teams chosen as at-large bid during the NCAA Selection Show at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

Baseball

As former Ohio State pitcher Andrew Magno once said, "The Bucks are hot. You don't like it when the Bucks are hot."

Well, as the 2023 season comes to an end, the Bucks are, in fact, hot, as Ohio State has won six consecutive contests as it approaches a season finale home series with Michigan this weekend. If the Buckeyes have their way, the Wolverines won't like that.

Ohio State's win streak started on May 7, when the Buckeyes defeated Iowa, 5-2, to avoid a sweep in Iowa City. Over the next seven days, head coach Bill Mosiello's squad welcomed three opponents to Columbus, including UCF and Central Michigan in one-off non-conference matchups and UNC Greensboro for a three-game series. Ohio State handed each of them losses, defeating the Scarlet Knights 2-0, the Flames 13-5 and the Spartans by a combined score of 20-4 in 25 innings.

With no mid-week opponent before Michigan, Ohio State will host the Wolverines (26-22, 13-8 Big Ten) in Columbus with a 28-25 record. While above .500 overall, the Buckeyes have struggled this season with Big Ten competition, collecting a 6-15 mark against conference opponents with only one series win (Illinois) from those contests. That said, even with the win streak, Ohio State will need a complete effort to take down Michigan.

To do that, the Buckeyes will ride the arms of Isaiah Coupet, Gavin Bruni, Justin Eckhardt and Jonah Jenkins as starters and Nolan Clegg and Jake Johnson out of the bullpen. Offensively, Ohio State will look to Tyler Pettorini (.319 avg), Nick Erwin (.298), Henry Kaczmar (.291), Kade Kern (.283) and Marcus Ernst (.279) to remain hot at the plate.

Ohio State and Michigan will battle on Friday and Saturday at 6 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. on Nick Swisher Field inside Bill Davis Stadium. All three games will be broadcast on BTN+, with radio options on the team's official website.

Other News and Notes

  • The No. 10-seeded Ohio State women’s tennis team’s run in the NCAA Tournament ended with a 4-1 loss at No. 7 Stanford on Friday. The Cardinal won the doubles point and then moved to a 3-0 lead with straight-set singles victories. Irina Cantos Siemers put the Buckeyes on the board, but Stanford won the next completed match to advance.
  • The Ohio State softball team's run in the 2023 Big Ten Tournament ended Wednesday when Minnesota hit a walk-off single in the eighth inning to knock off the Buckeyes, 3-2. With the loss, Ohio State fell to 33-20 on the year. The program was not selected for the NCAA Tournament on Sunday, marking the end of the 2023 season.
  • Former Ohio State men's lacrosse player Jack Myers was selected with the No. 20 overall pick in the 2023 Premier Lacross League draft on Tuesday. He totaled 121 goals and 115 assists for 236 points in his career, becoming the third Buckeye in program history to surpass 100 career assists and the sixth Ohio State player to reach 200 points. The Bethesda, Maryland, native ranks third among active NCAA players in career points and assists.
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