As Ohio’s baseball coach for 23 years, Joe Carbone brings the word ‘consistency’ to mind — but that word would not be used to describe his 2011 team.
For the first time since 2007, and the tenth time in Carbone’s career, his team will miss out on the Mid-American Conference tournament.
“Consistency was an issue all season,” Carbone said. “Just reminding guys about the fundamentals of the game. It was a season of learning. In the past, we’ve had some older guys, so we didn’t have to go over all these things.”
With Ohio’s three best offensive players lost to the draft last season, Carbone said he tempered his expectations coming into this season.
But despite the lack of veterans, the Bobcats got off to one of their best starts in years and began conference play with an above-.500 record.
Once MAC play began, however, the growing pains started to settle in as Ohio lost nine of its first 12 conference games.
“The competition was tougher in conference play than it was in non-conference play, and opposing pitchers learned how to pitch to our young guys,” Carbone said. “At the end of the year, we started hitting the ball better, playing better defense and pitching better, but we dug a hole for ourselves with early season losses.”
The Bobcats closed the season by winning eight of their final 15 conference games and missed the tournament by only a few percentage points.
“It’s definitely disappointing to not be in the tournament,” Carbone said. “That’s one of our goals, and we expect to be in it every year. We just didn’t get it done because we stubbed our toe with early-season losses.”
Despite the disappointment of not qualifying for the postseason, there were a few pleasant surprises for the Bobcats in 2011.
With his ability to get on base and manufacture runs, center fielder Ethan Newton served as the ideal leadoff man for the Bobcats.
In his first season of Division I baseball, Newton finished in the top ten in the MAC in hits, runs and stolen bases. He also led all players in hits and was second in batting average in conference play.
Shortstop Garrett Black also provided a spark to Bobcats offense. As a walk-on, Black did not expect to get much playing time this season. But after asserting himself as the starter midway through the season, Black finished with the third highest batting average on the team.
Along with Black, freshmen Dan Ward and Taylor Emody both made an immediate impact on the team.
Ward led Ohio in both home runs and RBIs, while Emody had the fourth-highest batting average on the team.
“We’re encouraged by the play of our young guys,” Carbone said. “They got some good experience and played well despite struggling at times. But you have to be patient with young people.”
While freshman led the team in many offensive categories this season, Carbone said he is looking for them to improve heading into next year.
“Hopefully they go out in summer ball and work on the things they need to work on,” Carbone said. “They’ve got to get better fundamentally defensively and better hitting-wise. They’ve had some success, but they’ve still got to get better.
“We’ve got some pretty talented young kids coming in next year that we feel like if we combine with the guys we got coming back, we think we’ll have a pretty good club next year.”
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