The adage says, "pitching is 75% of baseball." The Buckeyes may find out.

by Contributor

Power Outage
What caused Ohio State to topple from first to fifth place? A middling offense. A team .288 batting average may sound impressive, but in college ball, where the crowd roars at the ping of the aluminum bat, it's not. Too often, the Buckeyes mixed blowout wins with 2-1 or 4-3 losses.

Going, Going, Gone
Unfortunately, a couple of OSU's biggest bats have left. Second baseman Chad Ehrnsberger transferred while Jason Turner, the Big 10 home run champ, graduated. Fortunately, Nick Swisher, last year's league freshman of the year, returns to first base.

Arms Race
What OSU may lack in bats, it makes up for in pitching. Cory Cox was one of the Big 10's best relievers and he had plenty of help from Kyle Brown (4-0) and Kevin Wynk. Unfortunately, nominal ace E.J. Laratta had one of the highest ERAs. If he pitches to his potential, this team won't need much offense to win.

2001 Schedule and Results

February
2/23 vs. Nebraska 5-10 (at Lafayette, LA)
2/24 vs. Wichita State 5-6 (at Lafayette, LA)
2/25 at LA-Lafayette 10-2


March
3/2 at Jacksonville 10-9
3/3 vs. Stetson 13-5 (at Jacksonville)
3/3 vs. N. Florida 10-14 (at Jacksonville)
3/4 vs. Austin Peay 8-10 (at Jacksonville)
3/9 Detroit 11-1
3/10 Detroit 13-0, 5-4
3/16 vs. Harvard 4-1 (at Bradenton FL)
3/17 vs. Vermont 7-4 (at Bradenton FL)
3/19 vs. Northwestern 5-0 (at Bradenton FL)
3/20 vs. Fairleigh-Dickinson 14-2 (at Bradenton FL)
3/21 vs. Fairleigh-Dickinson 10-2 (at Bradenton FL)
3/22 vs. Fairleigh-Dickinson 10-0 (at Bradenton FL)
3/24 vs. Vermont 5-1 (at Bradenton FL)
3/24 vs. Harvard 1-0 (at Bradenton FL)
3/25 vs. Northwestern 10-5 (at Bradenton FL)
3/25 vs. Harvard 7-5 (at Bradenton FL)
3/28 Birmingham-Southern 12-2