Men's Baseball Season Preview
OCU Baseball Looks to Build on 2010 Success
The 2011 Ohio Christian Baseball Team will try to build on a 2010 Mid East Regional Championship and a trip to the NCCAA World Series in 2011. As the Blazers prepare for a new season the outlook seems to be a perfect case of good news versus bad news.
Five starters, including three all region players return to lead the offense. However wins leader and all region pitcher Steve Vogelgesang transferred to California. Fall practice saw four talented newcomers to the squad, only to have academic problems, injuries, and family issues take all four away from OCU this semester. Still a couple of new arms have been added to the Blazers roster, but one of those has suffered a broken foot.
Coach Greg Bigam, who returns for his second season stated he never knows who is able to play from one week to the next. "It is life as a coach at a small college," commented Bigam. "If a couple of guys had done better in the classroom and we don't get a couple of guys injured, we would have been much deeper than last season which was one of our goals for 2011. We still have several solid starters back and a new co-coach that has really worked with our pitchers, so we will compete."
Joining Bigam on the staff is his son Brian Bigam, an all conference pitcher at Division 2 Indianapolis and a former assistant coach at Indy as well. "I was pretty much by myself last year and when Brian moved back to Ohio he agreed to co-coach. Coach Brian is doing most of the on the field coaching while I try to handle all the administration, scheduling, recruiting, budgeting, etc. "said Bigam. Brian has coached at Indianapolis, assisted with the Chillicothe Paints when they were a professional team, and was a head high school coach who guided his team to the sweet 16 in Ohio. I am prejudice, but he is a huge addition to our program."
Looking at 2011, Michael Blevins, a 2010 All-American, returns off a 390 season and also won 7 games on the hill for the Blazers. Junior Max Ray returns behind the plate as the leading hitter in 2010 with a 426 average. Also back for OCU is third baseman Kelton Sines, a 333 hitter who was third in rbi's. Senior first baseman Adam Peters hit 320 and led last year's team with 31 rbi's and three home runs. Junior Ron Goodwin is the final starter returning and led the team in walks while playing 5 different positions defensively.
Brandon Zimmerman returns off limited action last year when he injured his knee, while sophomore Josh Clatty also returns as a first baseman and outfielder.
The Blazers still have several new faces ready to go despite their roster losses after first semester. Ryan Black is at the top of the list of new players. Black will be a primary middle infielder and pitch as well as hit high in the lineup. Also joining the OCU squad are two new pitchers, righthanders Logan Creech and Christian Lee. Creech came from Montana and should pitch near the top of the rotation, while Lee hopes to be on the mound when his broken foot heals up.
"Our biggest negative is probably depth with our roster looking like it could be anywhere from 11 to 16 at this point," summarized Bigam. "Also, we have strengthened our schedule this year with Baldwin Wallace, Oberlin, Alice Lloyd in Kentucky, and Geneva from Pennsylvania. Add Cedarville and highly ranked Toccoa Falls from Georgia, plus regional rivals Johnson Bible and Freewill and we have our work cut out."
"The biggest positive is that the young men who are on this team are top notch young men. We will be solid and the unknown is how we can handle a tough schedule crammed into 7 weeks with a short roster," stated Bigam. OCU opens 2011 on March 3 at the VA Stadium in Chillicothe by hosting Cincinnati Christian. The Blazers then go south to Tennessee and Georgia on the 5th.