Softball: Ohio State comes home to face Rutgers

Weiyu Tong
Fri, 05 Apr 2019 03:10:20 +0000
News, Softball, Sports, Alex Vargas, Amy Balich, Andi Farrah, Ashley Goodwin, Bailee Sturgeon, Becca Gavin, Bri Herschel, Buckeyes, Carley Gaskill, Claire Nicholson, Emily Clark, Kallie Boren, Katya Duvall, Kelly Kovach Schoenly, lilli piper, Maddie Marotti, Megan Choinacky, Megan McMenemy, MJ James, Morgan Ray, Niki Carver, ohio state, Ohio state buckeyes softball, Ohio State softball, Ohio State softball roster, Ohio State softball schedule, Ohio State softball score, RU, Rutgers [and 8 more]

Ohio State sophomore outfielder Summer Constable (00) leads off? the base at Buckeye Field. Ohio State defeated Indiana 2-0 on March 24. Credit: Gretchen Rudolph | For The Lantern

After winning three of four games on its latest road trip against Maryland and Pittsburgh, the Ohio State softball team (21-10, 5-1 Big Ten) will return home to begin a three-game series against Rutgers (16-17, 0-6 Big Ten).

Ohio State has not lost to the Scarlet Knights since April 18, 2015. The Buckeyes outscored Rutgers 28-8 in their three-game series this past season.

This season, Rutgers will have some competitive newcomers. As a freshman, catcher Katie Wingert has recorded a .301 batting average, 19 runs, 29 RBI and a team-leading nine home runs. Freshman pitcher Corah Price has recorded a 3.25 ERA and leads the team with eight wins this season.

Rutgers senior infielder Jess Hughes also will be a force for which the Buckeyes need to watch out. This season, Hughes leads the team with a .406 batting average, and added 33 runs and 23 RBI to his stat line.

Senior outfielder Megan Choinacky said the goal for the team is to make sure they don’t beat themselves and to take care of what’s needed to be done on and off the field.

“I think right now we just need to worry about ourselves, do what we can do and what we can control. That’s we’ve been working on as a team,” Choinacky said.

Ohio State sophomore utility player Niki Carver mentioned that senior shortstop Lilli Piper and freshman outfielder Kaitlyn Coffman both had a home run last weekend, something she thinks will continue as the season moves on.

“I thinking we are going to see more and more as going on,” Carver said.

For last week’s games against Maryland, the Buckeyes faced adversity on Friday, losing their first game since March 17. However, they soon bounced back on Saturday.

“Just show how much growth we have for our team. We are on the up and up,” Choinacky said.

Carver said Ohio State will try and continue its late-series success against Rutgers at home this weekend.

“I think that we did good overall. We were executing thing we are supposed to,” Carver said.

Ohio State will take on Rutgers at 6 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday at Buckeye Field.