Anthony Gressick represents all that the Ohio baseball team is this year.
A third-team All-American last season, Gressick finished the season with a .377 batting average and 16 home runs as a designated hitter.
Now, he will be asked to don his glove and cap and fill the largest void on the team: pitching.
I've been in this situation before
and it never really has (hurt my hitting) before Gressick said of balancing both roles of hitting and pitching. But at the same time
you have to be into the game
both knowing when your team's hitting and when you're back on the field pitching.
The Bobcats will be returning nearly every player in the batting order from last season. Only outfielder Dan Lunsford graduated from a team that finished sixth in the Mid-American Conference in hitting last season.
On the defensive side, however, the Bobcats lost their three starting pitchers in Chris Bova, Marc Cornell and Adam Russell, all of whom were drafted last summer.
I think you can look at it two ways
Gressick said. You can look at it the way that we lost three starters and three pretty good pitchers in that ... But it's also a challenge to three new guys
and I think all three of us are ready to step up and fill that role.
Derek Witt, Rob Harmon and Dan O'Rourke will join Gressick as the potential starters this season. And although this year's staff doesn't quite have the same starting experience as last season's staff, coach Joe Carbone is confident in his team's ability to excel.
Losing Russell hurt
of course
because he was a junior and would've come in here and been one of our top starters
Carbone said. But there's two ways to look at it. Bova was out there
and he was (5-6). And Cornell only won one game and Russell only won one game.
