The Bobcats host Youngstown State and Ohio State today and tomorrow. One contest is “just another ballgame,” according to coach Joe Carbone. The other is a continuation of two decades of tradition.
Ohio students might care more about the Buckeyes (hence the “O-S-Who” shirts around campus), but it’s Youngstown State the Bobcats have more history with, according to Carbone.
Yes, when the Youngstown State arrives at Bob Wren Stadium today, it will be the 23rd time — one for each year Carbone has coached the Bobcats — it has appeared on Ohio’s schedule.
And the Penguins aren’t the only team Carbone has scheduled every season.
“Everybody in the state of Ohio that you see on our schedule, we play every year,” Carbone said. “All those other (Ohio) teams? We’ve played them 23 years.”
Besides Youngstown State, the list includes Xavier, Dayton, Wright State, Cleveland State and Cincinnati. The Bobcats also regularly face out-of-state squads Pittsburgh, Duquesne and Division-II West Virginia State.
Not surprisingly, Carbone has developed close relationships with the coaches of these schools.
“We see each other on recruiting trails, and we’re close, and we’re Division-I,” Carbone said. “So there’s no reason not to play.”
The common factor between these teams is they’re all within a reasonable driving distance of Athens.
Carbone said the primary reason he schedules the same mid-week opponents is budget. The other reason is to ensure his players don’t miss class because of traveling.
“The schools we play, most of them have lights,” Carbone said. “So (the players) get to go to all their morning classes, jump on the bus, have a sandwich, have lunch ready for them on the bus, and go play Pitt, go play Duquesne, go play Cincinnati.
“We play 56 games. You gotta schedule mainly so you don’t miss class.”
Carbone has many contacts in college baseball, so Ohio often gets invited to play in tournaments run by his old colleagues. The Bobcats traveled to South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee before their Mid-American Conference season began.
“The coach at Davidson and I coached on the Olympic team together,” Carbone said. “The coach at Vanderbilt was my graduate assistant.
“When you’re an old bastard like me, and you’ve been around with coaches for a long time, some of the guys are trying to take care of me in my old age here.”
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