Ohio’s turnaround 2015 season could be just the beginning.
Keeping his emotions stowed safely under his baseball cap, Ohio coach Rob Smith addressed the media after his team’s 9-4 loss to Wright State in the elimination game of the NCAA Champaign Regional tournament.
“I just want to say how proud I am of our team,” Smith said. “What they did this year was amazing.”
It was the type of thing everyone expected Smith to say. But months earlier many people didn’t expect Smith to make it far enough to say anything at all.
After two losing seasons in his first two years at the helm of the Bobcats, Smith led the team to an NCAA-best season turnaround and offered a glimpse at what Ohio could be capable of in the future.
The season opener may have provided the best hint at what Ohio had in store for its 2015 campaign. Tied 6-6 with UNC Asheville in the top of the ninth, the Bobcats scored 10 runs in the inning and went on to win 16-9. That would be the first of six-straight wins for the Bobcats during a run in which they averaged 11 runs per game.
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Ohio would lose its next four games, dropping to 6-4 on the year, then continue with mini spurts of wins and losses without straying too far from the .500 mark.
By the beginning of April, with a 14-12 record, Ohio had good reason to be more than satisfied with how the year was going.
The Bobcats’ 14 wins through 26 games had already exceeded 2014’s 11-40 record and equaled 2013’s mark of 14-37.
With a win over Kentucky — something Ohio hadn’t done since 1997, which was the team’s last NCAA Tournament appearance — and extra-inning losses to Georgia Tech and Ohio State, the Bobcats had proven themselves against power conference opponents.
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Despite losing both of its Mid-American Conference series to that point, Ohio had long-term aspirations that far exceeded outsiders’ expectations.
That wasn’t saying much, however, because the Bobcats had been selected to finish 11 out of 12 in the MAC’s preseason rankings.
“To see a team that was pretty much doubted by everybody within our league — and rightfully so, for a lot of reasons, you consider what we’d done the previous two years — we knew internally there were some things coming,” Ohio coach Rob Smith said.
“We knew there were some guys getting healthy, we saw some improvement coming along in certain guys and I’m not surprised that they were able to accomplish this.”
Smith, unlike his players, was quite familiar with reaching collegiate baseball’s national stage.
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During six years at Creighton, Smith helped coach the Blue Jays to three Missouri Valley Conference titles and three automatic NCAA tournament bids (2007, 2011 and 2012).
“I’ve been fortunate enough now to be at four (NCAA Regionals),” Smith said, “and after you get done with one you ask yourself, ‘Man, how are we going to do this again?’ because it’s so challenging.”
Smith was hired by Ohio on June 11, 2012, but struggled in his first two years. When the Bobcats failed to make the MAC tournament both seasons, Smith called on his players to change their mindset.
“I’m proud of what the kids did and their ability to completely flip their brains,” Smith said. “We asked them to stay focused on positive things coming into the year and they were very motivated and bought in and just completely flipped the culture.”
Driven all year by the belief that “something good is about to happen,” the Bobcats prided themselves on their resiliency in the face of adversity.
On April 12, after suffering a demoralizing 11-1 loss to Bowling Green and dropping their second straight home MAC series, the Bobcats were challenged to live up to their motto.
Ohio responded by winning seven of its next eight games, including a home sweep against Akron that marked its first home sweep since the 2011-2012 season.
Then, following losses in three of their last four home games of the season, the Bobcats came back to win five of their final six MAC regular season games to lock up a No. 3 seed in the conference tournament.
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The team stayed red-hot and blew through the MAC tournament. The Bobcats won all four of their games — two were against Bowling Green, including junior Connor Sitz’s no-hitter — and outscored opponents 22-5.
Ohio’s back-to-back losses in the NCAA regional tournament, to nationally ranked No. 6 Illinois and Horizon League champion Wright State, brought its final record to 36-20, the second most wins in school history behind the 1997 team (43).
“I’ve been a part of some good teams,” Smith said. “But I’m not sure I’ve been a part of a team that’s as special as this one, as far as what they had to go through to get to the point where they’re at.”
The Bobcats will undoubtedly lose some significant contributors for next season, including Colorado Rockies draft pick and MAC Pitcher of the Year Logan Cozart and Ohio all-time hits leader Jake Madsen. But six starting position players will be returning, along with all of their pitchers except Cozart, lefty Spencer Sapp and Florida State transfer Evan Geist.
Leading the way for Ohio next season will be MAC Player of the Year Mitch Longo, a junior. He led the MAC in hits (83), tied for second in RBIs (47) and was third in batting average (.358).
Now that Ohio has made it back to the NCAA Tournament, Smith is hoping his returning players will begin to see how their hard work can pay huge dividends.
“You hope that after they get a little taste of it, that extra time spent in the weight room, or that motivation to go hit on their own in the cages or the decisions they make off the field to represent their program,” Smith said, “you hope it comes back to this time because they want to experience this again and be part of something special like this.
“That’s how programs grow and I hope that this is a big step forward for us as we move into the future years.”
@jordanhorrobin
jh950614@ohio.edu
