What's happening in central Ohio high school baseball? Here are 5 storylines
As central Ohio baseball teams continue play in the second half of the regular season, league races have taken shape.
In the OCC-Capital, Big Walnut and Dublin Scioto are contending for the title, with Scioto seeking back-to-back championships.
Pickerington Central (Buckeye), Grove City (Ohio), Olentangy Berlin (Cardinal) and Olentangy Orange (Central) lead the other OCC divisions.
In the first-year Central Buckeye League, Buckeye Valley holds the top spot.
Here are five storylines for central Ohio high school baseball:
1. Big Walnut flourishing under Stafford
The Golden Eagles have exceeded the expectations of first-year coach Mike Stafford, a former Ohio State and minor league player.
Big Walnut is 15-0 overall and 10-0 in the OCC-Capital. The Golden Eagles are seeking their first league title since 2018 and fourth overall.
“I was hoping for a .500 record,” Stafford said. “Last year, they won nine games, and they lost a lot of close, tough games. I wanted to change the culture that we’re going to set the (tone) of the game.
“We’re going to go out and we’re going to be aggressive, and we’re never going to quit until that 21st out is recorded. We ingrained that in them all fall, all winter, and we made practice harder than the games. And when the games come, it’s almost fun to them because practices are intense and hard.”
The Golden Eagles face big tests Friday and Monday against second-place Dublin Scioto, which won the OCC-Capital last season. Scioto fell to 8-2 in the league with a 6-2 loss at Delaware on Thursday.
Junior Nick Weiss headlines the Big Walnut pitching staff. He is 3-0 and has a 0.54 ERA with 28 strikeouts and three walks in 26 innings.
“Knowing coach’s background and just the young guys that we have, I trusted the coaching staff. I could see this coming,” Weiss said. “Obviously, (being) undefeated is kind of crazy. I didn’t see that coming, but with the talent we had going into the year and then having the new coaching staff, I thought it would spark something.”
Evan Couser is batting .447 to lead the offense. Eli Helton and Jake Ness are both hitting .395, with Helton leading in home runs (4) and RBIs (13).
2. Dublin Scioto hoping to defend league title
Eighth-year coach Ryan Longbrake has the Irish (13-4) in contention for the OCC-Capital title despite losing 11 players to graduation from last year’s 23-6 team, which won Scioto’s first league championship since 2010.
“We had really big shoes to fill and our seniors have been up to the task,” Longbrake said. They’ve been our best players all year long, but on top of that, our best leaders. When your best players are your best leaders, you have a chance to be really good.”
Charlie Marando was batting .455 through 16 games, followed by Bryce Kyees (.444) and Ryan Costorf (.415), and Kyees led in RBIs (16). All three are seniors.
Junior Michael Wangler was 5-0 with a 1.57 ERA, 13 strikeouts and seven walks in 22 ⅓ innings, and junior Simon Newkirk was 3-0 with a 1.20 ERA, 16 strikeouts and nine walks in 23 ⅓ innings. Newkirk missed most of last season with a broken leg sustained while playing junior varsity.
3. Pickerington Central looking for league title repeat
Central has its sights on back-to-back OCC-Buckeye titles.
The Tigers (14-2, 11-1) are ahead of Lancaster (12-5, 9-2), which hosts Central on Wednesday. Central beat Lancaster 3-0 on April 15 and 1-0 on April 17.
“We lost some talent with last year’s senior class, but we also knew we had some special guys coming back, and we knew we had guys who were waiting in the wings and champing at the bit,” sixth-year coach Colin Wilson said. “The guys really worked hard in the offseason. We put together a good workout program. We worked our tails off.”
Senior Ben Thornberry (1B/P) leads the offense with a .478 batting average, followed by sophomores Connor Rutherford (.375, OF/C/P) and Cael Kogge (.349, C/P). Thornberry also leads in RBIs (14).
On the mound, junior Colton Landtiser (INF/P) and senior Jake Soha (1B/P) are both 4-0. Landtiser has a 0.99 ERA with 48 strikeouts and eight walks in 26 ⅓ innings, and Soha has a 1.12 ERA with 24 strikeouts and eight walks in 25 innings.
“I like where we’re at right now,” Wilson said. “We always have things to work on, but where we’re sitting right now, I like our energy.”
4. Buckeye Valley continues to surge
Led by third-year coach Johnny DeRing, Buckeye Valley is looking to capture the first CBL title. It won the MSL-Ohio in DeRing’s first season.
After opening with three losses during a spring break trip to North Carolina, Buckeye Valley (11-3, 10-0) won its 11th consecutive game when it beat Ready 6-0 on Thursday.
“We’re extremely happy,” DeRing said. “We started off kind of rough. We dropped our first three games, two of them in the bottom of the seventh. We’ve played really well since we got back from our spring trip.”
Buckeye Valley’s remaining league schedule includes games with Columbus Academy on Monday and May 3.
“This should line up real nice,” DeRing said. “We should be able to roll into the (Division II) district tournament winning the league again and be able to carry that momentum.”
Through 13 games, senior Jaxson Stried (C/1B/P) was batting .512, followed by junior Evan Lang (.476, OF) and seniors Nathan Pierson (.468, P/3B) and Bryson Shumate (.465, P/3B).
5. Harvest Prep snaps winless drought
Harvest Prep’s 7-3 victory over West on Saturday snapped a nearly decade-long winless drought. The Warriors’ last victory was a 14-10 win over Canton South in April 2015.
First-year coach Zach Ullom, 25, was a student at Groveport at the time. He played baseball for the Cruisers, graduating in 2017, and then played two seasons at Muskingum.
“I wasn’t familiar with how long it’s been since they won a game,” said Ullom, who was an assistant at Wittenberg last year. “Going through the interview process, they made sure I knew they were very raw. As a coach, it’s intriguing to be able to say I had an influence on those guys.”
Freshman Michael Dilgard (P/C) earned the win against West, striking out 11 in a complete-game effort.
“The guys were juiced,” Ullom said. “When the game ended, they came off the field not knowing how to react. They haven’t had that feeling and then it finally set in, and they started going crazy. They were loving life.”
Other key players have been seniors Keaton Webb (SS/P) and Dillon Hayes (OF/C/P).
“It’s hard sometimes to take coaching, especially hard coaching when you haven’t really been coached like that in the past,” Ullom said. “They’ve really bought into a lot of things I’ve wanted to do.”
Harvest Prep is 1-11 overall and 0-11 in the MSL-Cardinal.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: 5 storylines in Greater Columbus high school baseball
