April 23, 2011
In the middle of Easter dinner, a family in Warren, Ohio, suddenly hears a commotion.
Joe Sekula, the fourth catcher on Ohio’s roster, is home with his extended family while the Bobcats play a road game in Bowling Green. As his aunts and uncles start to wonder what the racket is, Sekula and his mother are jumping up and down with joy in an adjacent room.
The two are listening to the online broadcast of Ohio’s game against Bowling Green. Garrett Black, Sekula’s best friend on the team and fellow freshman walk-on, has just hit his first career home run.
Miles away, after the Bobcats wrap up a 7-5 win at Warren Steller Field made possible by Black’s 10th-inning homer, coach Joe Carbone approaches Black’s father, Chuck.
Chuck is an inductee of Bowling Green’s Hall of Fame who, like his son, played shortstop and, unlike his son, was drafted out of high school by the Detroit Tigers. He was also unsuccessfully recruited by Carbone, who then was an assistant at Toledo. Black turned down the Tigers’ offer and enrolled at Bowling Green.
But on this occasion, Carbone walks up to Chuck and says, “I got the best Black.”
And it looks like he did. After being inserted into the lineup 14 games into the season, Black leads the Bobcats with a .329 batting average and a .402 on-base percentage.
In a couple days, Black will be named the Mid-American Conference East Player of the Week after batting .500 and driving in five runs during the Bobcats’ series win against Bowling Green.
All is well for Ohio’s best freshman.
August 30, 2010
Garrett Black is bored.
After playing varsity baseball, soccer and basketball all four years of high school, Black presently is no more of an athlete than most of the other 20,000 or so undergraduates at Ohio University.
Despite being named First-Team All-District at his high school in Lima, Ohio, Black received no scholarship offers, nor was he recruited by any colleges.
He had the option to play soccer at Division-III Ohio Northern, but instead Black opted to set sports aside and go to the school he liked most.
“Sports really didn’t matter at the time,” Black said. “I wanted to be happy, and if sports came, then it’d be a plus.”
But he hasn’t given up on athletics entirely. Ohio coach Joe Carbone is one of the few D-I baseball coaches who holds open tryouts before every season.
So Black spends his time playing catch and taking batting practice thrown by his roommate.
Privately, Carbone was already confident Black would make Ohio’s roster.
Black sent Carbone a steady stream of emails and game film all summer.
Carbone also knew Black’s father.
“So I wasn’t some random kid,” Black said.
Still, Carbone does not tell Black about his good chances.
March 13, 2011
Black is standing on first base, deliriously happy.
The first 13 games of the year have passed with Black only subbing in to play defense twice.
Although he made the fall and summer cuts, Black has struggled to adjust to college baseball. Carbone named senior Wes O’Neill the starting shortstop going into the season.
But lately, O’Neill has struggled at the plate and in the field. So Carbone pinch hits Black in the bottom of the eighth inning against Marshall.
Black will later say he doesn’t remember much of the at-bat (“It was almost like I blacked out,” he said). But he finds himself on first after singling past third base.
Sekula has a clear memory of it.
“Watching (Black) get into the game, I had chills,” Sekula said. “I had chills in my body because Garrett … that was my best friend playing baseball. It’s the same situation I was in.”
Carbone inserts Black into the starting lineup at shortstop the following game.
He never came out.
Black eventually falls behind junior Ethan Newton and senior Bryan Barnes for the top average on the team, finishing at .307 in 114 at-bats.
But whether he was the best or third-best hitter isn’t as important to Black as getting in a game to begin with.
“That first hit I got was probably better than the home run I hit,” Black said. “I don’t know. Just the fact that I actually made it to a D-I school and I actually got my first at-bat and got a hit. And now I’m standing on first base.
“That was probably the best feeling I’ve ever had.”
nm256306@ohiou.edu
@ThePostSports
