To say Ohio is undergoing a youth movement would be an understatement.
Ravaged by injury upon injury both before the season began and in the first two series, the Bobcats (2-4) will be trotting out a good deal of inexperience when they travel to take on Georgia Southern (7-1) and Southern Illinois-Edwardsville (1-6) this weekend in Statesboro, Ga.
Four projected regulars, including three of Ohio’s best four hitters in Nick Squires, Nate Squires and Cody Gaertner, were ruled out for the season before the first pitch of 2014 was thrown.
Then, middle infielder Garrett Black suffered an injury that will keep him out at least the first month of the season, before starting catcher Kyle Dean also suffered an injury that will keep him sidelined for an extended period of time.
Smith said that if there’s a freshman pitcher on the mound, there could be as many as seven freshmen on the field at one time.
Thrusting so many underclassmen into immediate duty wasn’t something coach Rob Smith expected, nor was it something he’s particularly thrilled about.
“I knew that we’d have some freshman contributions,” Smith said. “But ideally, you always hope that you can ease those guys into it a little bit and not throw them into the fire and let some of your more experienced players get out there and get things going.”
Despite things not exactly going as planned, Smith said he’s encouraged with how the younger players have performed.
“Now we’re asking these young guys to step up and play prominent roles,” Smith said. “And I’ll be honest, they’ve shown a lot of poise and have handled it quite well. … It’s helpful in that they’re going to have to figure out the learning curve a lot quicker.”
As far as adjusting to his role as a collegiate starter, freshman pitcher Jake Roehn is becoming accustomed to facing hitters at this level after tossing 7 1/3 innings with a 7.36 earned run average and seven strikeouts.
“It was hard at first,” Roehn said. “But when you get in the swing of things, everything starts to flow together a little bit and teammates are there helping you along. It’s a fun process.”
Facing Ohio this weekend is one game against an SIU-Edwardsville team that has been outscored by a 69-25 margin in seven games and has posted a .230 batting average.
The Bobcats’ other two games will be against a Georgia Southern team that has started off the season on the opposite side of the spectrum, outscoring its opponents 84-28 in eight games.
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