Where Walter Hall and the art installation behind it now stand on the corner of Richland Ave. and South Green Drive used to be Trautwein Field.
It was the first thing visitors saw as they rounded the side of Peden Stadium for 38 years, and now most Ohio students don't even know the field existed ' or that the winningest team in Ohio baseball history played there in its final year of use.
Ten years ago, from May 15-17, students packed Trautwein's bleachers, filled the now-non-existent sun deck on the Aquatic Center and even climbed to the top of Peden's stands to catch a glimpse of the 1997 Bobcats in the Mid-American Conference Tournament.
It was great to have the field in the center of campus
1997 Ohio right fielder Bart Leahy said. People would walk by just to get to classes and see us. We'd actually have people watching our practices.
Ohio won all six games prior to the tournament, including a complete four-game sweep of Akron that sealed the Bobcats' sole ownership of the MAC regular-season title for the first time since 1991 and ensured they'd host the tourney at Trautwein.
I think we knew we controlled our own destiny going into that weekend (against Akron) then-co-captain and MAC All-Tournament Team shortstop Damon Wilcox said. If we won 3-of-4 we guaranteed ourselves a share of the title
but if we swept
it was ours outright.
From the comfort of their own dugout as the No. 1 seed in the tournament, the Bobcats drubbed Miami 23-4 in the first game. Seven straight wins. Then they out-dueled Ball State 9-6. Eight straight wins.But they wanted a ninth straight victory ' for the championship against Kent State, and the game wasn't without its dramatics.
The Bobcats let a three-run lead slip in the fourth, but reclaimed a 7-4 advantage in the eighth and staved off the Golden Flashes' last gasp to win the game 7-6, claiming the school's first-ever MAC Tournament title in the final contest played on Trautwein Field.
Lasting legacy, bond
Although the 1997 Bobcats were knocked out of the NCAA Tournament in Stillwater, Okla., in two games after falling to Tennessee and UCLA, their 43-18 record still stands as the best in program history.
The team's 43 victories remain at least eight wins beyond the reach of any other Ohio baseball team. For those players who returned this past weekend for the 10-year reunion of the 1997 Bobcats, their accomplishments as a team are undoubtedly important, but the friendships they forged is what they say made those successes possible.
It takes time to determine where you are as a team and where you want to be and how you're going to get there
said Brian Schubmehl, a senior pitcher who went 10-0 with a 3.61 ERA in 1997. One thing this team did well early was that we backed each other up.
In addition to Schubmehl's 10 wins, senior Tom Miller and sophomore Robert Sismondo each had 11 wins in 1997, marking the first time three Ohio pitchers earned at least 10 wins.
Also for the first time, four Ohio batters ' Brady Gick (10), Leahy (11), Jake Eye (11) and Jason Arbinger (10) ' hit at least 10 home runs. By the end of the MAC Tournament, the Bobcats batted a .333 team average and boasted a conference-leading .970 fielding percentage.
It was like everyone had a career year together
and it's hard to believe. For all that to happen at the same time was pretty special
said Gick, who batted .365 as a senior co-captain and catcher.
A junior in 1997, Leahy was named MAC Tournament MVP after he batted a .714 with three home runs, eight runs scored and eight RBIs over the course of the tournament.
On Saturday afternoon, before this year's Bobcats defeated Miami 5-4, Leahy was at a loss to explain how after not seeing some of his teammates for years, their relationship hadn't changed.
We were all great friends. I don't understand the bond now even
but we've been able to pick up where we left off.
And where they left off was the top of the Bobcats' record books, where they still are.
17
