The fourth day of the Mid-American Conference Tournament was a soggy one, as rain rolled through Avon causing delay after delay.
But Ohio would have been welcome to accommodate delays, as it would have meant an appearance in the tournament, which was the team’s goal since the beginning of the season.
Alas, the Bobcats (14-39, 9-18 MAC) fell short of the tournament and finished at the bottom of the MAC East without winning one series in conference play.
Coach Rob Smith entered the season with a good deal of optimism that he admittedly said was a bit overboard.
“Ultimately, when you’re going into (the season), you’re very positive about what your guys can and can’t do,” Smith said. “But as we continued throughout the course of the season, it became very apparent that the issues we thought we had were, in fact, there.”
In The Field
Smith wanted a team that was anchored upon defense, a pitching staff that pounded the strike zone and a batting order that didn’t rely on any one player.
And for a team that was supposed to be built upon defense, their record displayed just how poor their gloves were. The team registered 79 errors, which is an average of 1.5 errors per game.
Smith also came into a program that was bereft of any pitching depth. Former spot-starter and reliever Marck Paliotto joined freshman Jake Miller and Connor Sitz in a rotation that had a combined one game started entering the season.
The bullpen was anchored by senior Brett Barber, with sophomore Nick Plys the only other returning relief arm. The lack of depth was so severe, that Smith had to look to sophomore Logan Cozart and Brad Przebieda to log a combined 69.2 innings over the course of the season.
The inexperience and lack of depth was on full display as the Bobcats finished last in the MAC in terms of team earned run average (5.68), hits (595 in 465.2 innings) and batting average against (.315).
At The Plate
The offense was mired in inconsistency throughout the season and often was put in poor positions because of the holes their pitching staff put them in. But the Bobcats especially struggled in terms of plate discipline and working pitchers.
Though Ohio found itself tied for ninth in strikeouts (306), it couldn’t get on base. Their on-base percentage ranked ninth in the conference (.338) and 11th in walks (137).
“The first year, there’s obviously a lot of reasons to get frustrated because of the results we were getting,” Smith said. “But as long as they were playing hard and giving an effort, that’s what I needed from them. Knowing that we had holes in certain spots and deficiencies in certain areas, I asked them to do the best they could. And I think they have a vast majority of the time.”
Senior Legacies
One thing often lost in the shuffle of coaching changes is how the team’s seniors react to their final season being turned into learning new philosophies and attitudes.
“It was tough at first,” senior third baseman Otto said. “Obviously (former coach Joe Carbone and Smith’s) coaching styles are different, but once we got going, I felt like I fit in right away and I feel I was able to adjust really well. It was really just a matter of getting a few practices in and buying in from the start.”
The group of seniors was thrust into new experiences, with Dan Schmidt moving to a position that he had never played before in short stop, Otto picking up regular playing time and moving to second base and Barber becoming the shut-down reliever out of the bullpen.
Along with Paliotto’s move into the starting rotation, it was a season of adjustments of the seniors and Smith said he was pleased with how the group reacted.
“I appreciate what they were able to in terms of buying in,” Smith said. “They bought in, they played hard, they played the style we wanted and many of them were doing things they had never been asked to do before. There were a lot of things that we put on those guys plates that I think they handled well.”
With the senior’s departure comes the addition of new players through Smith’s first full recruiting class. His staff hit the trail hard, with some assistants missing games to scout and court potential recruits that fit under Smith’s style.
“We’ve been looking for guys that have a competitive spirit,” Smith said. “We need to find guys that aren’t just coming (to Ohio) because of a lot of peripheral reasons. We have to find guys that want to come here because they’re interested in winning a MAC championship.
On Sunday, Ohio defeated Miami 7-3 and Otto was glad he could finish his career on a somewhat positive note. But on Wednesday afternoon, the feeling that he would never again tie up his cleats and play baseball competitively hadn’t sunk in yet.
“It really hasn’t hit me yet,” Otto said. “I’m still kind of going non-stop with everything, like being graduated, job searching and all that stuff. I think in the next couple weeks it’ll hit me.”
Looking Forward
As Otto’s post-baseball job search continues, his former teammates will be hard at work in Athens, taking summer classes and participating in workouts to prepare for the first formal team practice in September.
But with a new season on the horizon, Smith knows that seniors like Otto did something very important this season despite falling short of their goals.
“They made it real easy for us, as coaches, to transition this club,” Smith said. “And when we look back, and we’re successful as we want to be and this program is where we all know it’s going to be, we’ll be able to look back at those guys and thank them for some foundational work they’ve laid from an attitude and work habit stand point.”
ch203310@ohiou.edu
