The Buckeyes enter today’s game at Dayton with a 33-10-1 record before heading home for a weekend series with Michigan.
Ohio State’s women’s softball team has put together a strong season in head coach Kirin Kumar’s first year as head coach of the Buckeyes. Entering today’s game at Dayton, Ohio State has posted a 33-10-1 record, which has them ranked 24th in the country this week.
The Buckeyes are coming off a weekend series at Penn State where they took two of three games against the Nittany Lions. With their series win, Ohio State is now 6-4 over their last 10 games.
With the way they have started the season, the Buckeyes will be looking to make their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2022. Ohio State currently sits sixth in the Big Ten with an 8-5 conference record, sitting just behind Michigan, who they host for three games this weekend.
Even though they still have 11 conference games left in the regular season, it’s unlikely the Buckeyes will be able to catch Oregon and UCLA, who sit at the top of the Big Ten standings with a 12-1 record, to win their first regular season conference title since 2007.
Prior to accepting the Ohio State job in the offseason, Kirin Kumar was the head coach at Miami (OH) from 2021 to 2024, amassing a 174-56-1 record with the RedHawks, winning the MAC and qualifying for an NCAA Regional in each of her four years with the school.
Kumar replaced Kelly Kovach Schoenly, who had coached the Buckeyes since 2013. Schoenly compiled a 367-226-1, leading the Buckeyes to five appearances in the NCAA Regionals. Like Kumar, Schoenly also was the head coach at Miami before Ohio State lured her to Columbus.
Despite being in her first year with the Buckeyes, Kumar is close to eclipsing a mark of her predecessor. Schoenly’s best year as Ohio State’s coach saw her 2018 and 2022 teams win 36 games. To equal that number, Kumar’s team this year only has to win four more games.
With three games against both Purdue and Illinois, who sit below the Buckeyes in the Big Ten standings, Ohio State should be able to reach at least 37 victories this year as they work to secure a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
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Ohio State has displayed tremendous home run power so far this season, crushing a nation’s best 105 homers. Jasmyn Burns leads the team with 20 big flies this year, tying Lilli Piper’s school record from 2018. Because of her home run prowess, the sophomore has driven in 63 runs this year, and is hitting .492 on the season.
The other Buckeye hitting over .400 this year is Morgan Frye, who enters today’s game with a .413 average.
Reagan Milliken, Hadley Parisien, Kami Kortokrax, and Taylor Cruse are the other Ohio State batters who have hit at least 10 homers this year. Milliken closed out the Penn State series with three home runs in the finale, making her just the third Buckeye to ever hit a trifecta of homers in a single game.
Milliken now has 62 RBIs on the season, sitting just one RBI away from tying Burns from the team lead. Both hitters should easily break Stacy Roth’s single season school record of 66 RBIs, the only question is which of the dynamic duo will finish with more runs batted in at the end of the season.
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Anchoring the pitching staff for Ohio State this year has been Lorin Boutte, who is 15-7 with a 4.41 ERA and five complete games over her 21 starts. Boutte has struck out 102 batters this year over the 106.1 innings she has pitched. Kennedy Kay has started 10 games, going 9-3 with a 5.27 ERA.
Layna Gerhard and Kassandra Gewecke are a combined 9-0 with five complete games over the 32 games they have pitched in, with 13 of those appearances being starts. The future looks bright for the Buckeye pitching staff since Boutte, Gerhard, and Gewecke are all freshmen.
Wednesday’s game at Dayton can be seen on ESPN+ while the three-game series against Michigan that starts on Friday night can be seen on B1G+ if you can’t make it down to Buckeye Field for any of the games.