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Topic: Early 2026 Season

Topic: Early 2026 Season

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Stand Up & Cheer
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Member Since: 8/18/2025
Post Count: 11

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Early 2026 Season

Posted: 2/8/2026 2:23:27 PM

Looking forward to seeing how the season starts this Friday and getting a look at Coach See's first year team of 17 transfers, 12 returners and 11 freshman. A lot of new players and what I hope is year one of the rebuild to the Ohio Baseball program after the Craig Moore era of running this team into the ground. Expecting a lot of the new transfers to be taking the monster share of the playing time as they are the players See recruited. Lost a lot of hitting production with Slanker & Ineich leaving. Not expecting much but lots of transfers on the pitching side as well after last year's last in the MAC finish with an 8.83 ERA. Only upside from there. Very interested to see how the lineup starts this year and what updates/adjustments happen during the course of the year and in MAC play. I was also looking at the various guys that left and stayed in D1 and we shall see how the below do in new homes and if the grass is greener:

Ben Slanker - Louisville
Matt Ineich - WVU
JR Nelson - Illinois
Trae Cassidy - Memphis
Pauly Mancini - BGSU
Blake Gaskey - NIU
Zach Weber - OSU
Jake Geiser - Miami (OH)
Jackson Cauthron - Eastern Kentucky

Anyone have any intel on who the weekend pitching staff will be or anyone know of any big expectations or other news?

Stand Up & Cheer
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RE: Early 2026 Season

Posted: 2/12/2026 8:57:21 AM

MAC preseason poll is out. Miami & Kent at the top.

https://ohiobobcats.com/news/2026/2/11/mid-american-confe...

Diamond Cat
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RE: Early 2026 Season

Posted: 2/12/2026 7:30:27 PM

Sent my good vibes to coach See today on the eve of his era. Already tired of Fiami milking this hoops success. Now they are favored to win in ball. They have definitely tried to drown out the last 2 football losses.

Hoops is 32-12 since 2005 including 8 of the last 10. We certainly get them twice and possibly a 3rd. Getting swept either way is not acceptable.

Last Edited: 2/14/2026 11:47:17 AM by Diamond Cat

Diamond Cat
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Member Since: 12/20/2004
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RE: Early 2026 Season

Posted: 2/14/2026 11:54:41 AM

What is the deal with our digital media presence? From what I could find, we may be the only MAC Team with no streaming access to these Murray State games? Different start times listed for today's game - seen 11:00 AM and 3 PM. How hard is it?

Update: now I see today's game is postponed with DH tomorrow.

Last Edited: 2/14/2026 11:58:30 AM by Diamond Cat

Ted Thompson
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Member Since: 11/11/2004
Location: MAC Play
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RE: Early 2026 Season

Posted: 2/15/2026 10:17:55 AM

I'm guessing the no streaming is due to the fact that they are playing Murray State in Carbondale, IL. If it was at either home site, would probably be streamed. I was disappointed not to find it on ESPN+ when I was looking for it on Friday.

Follow Ohio Football recruiting on the BobcatAttack.com football recruiting database.

CatsUp
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Member Since: 4/15/2019
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RE: Early 2026 Season

Posted: 2/15/2026 7:59:04 PM

Per the Murray State website, the Racers took two of three in the series, winning game one (13-4) and game two (11-8). The Bobcats prevented the sweep by taking game three (15-13).

Diamond Cat
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RE: Early 2026 Season

Posted: 2/15/2026 10:28:24 PM

Win #1 for Coach See.

Scored 3 in the top of the 9th. Good thing. MS scores 3 in final AB. Wheeew!

Andrew Ruck
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Member Since: 12/22/2004
Location: Columbus, OH
Post Count: 5,596

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RE: Early 2026 Season

Posted: 2/16/2026 8:31:06 AM

About as good of a start as we could have hoped for against a team that was in Omaha last year. To get a win to go with a close loss...way better than I expected.

Basically our only regular player from last year to return, Cam Bryant, was the star of the weekend. 7 for 15 with 3 doubles and 2 homers. Damn.

OSU/VCU transfer Will Henson, and Tulane transfer Grant Wilson also had big weekends. On the mound was much like last year, ugly across the board. Only positive shoutout is to returning reliever Landon Price who threw 3 scoreless.

4 at Tennessee Tech next weekend.

Andrew Ruck
B.B.A. 2003

Stand Up & Cheer
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RE: Early 2026 Season

Posted: 2/16/2026 3:02:23 PM

Agree the pitching was challenging. Was good to see them playing hard even when down big early in game 2. Also was nice to see them bend but not break in game 3 as all last year they lost those games whether they were in the lead or a little behind usually with the pitching failing. They gave up the 3 runs in bottom of 9th of game 3 but those insurance runs did the job. The bats coming thru with 27 runs looks promising. Hopefully they can figure out more on the pitching side but 37 runs and 11.52 ERA for the weekend is tough. Also 6 errors for the weekend is a bit high. To be fair it is very early and with all the snow in Athens suspect that they have not had much of anytime outside so that also does not help even more so than usual. Good baseline to see how they do next series.

Andrew Ruck
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Location: Columbus, OH
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RE: Early 2026 Season

Posted: 2/25/2026 6:53:54 PM

WVU wipes the floor with us, 19-6. Not sure why they didn't use the run rule as they played the full 9. Former Bobcat SS Matt Ineich bats lead off and goes 4 for 5 with 2 doubles, 3 RBI, 3 R. Ouch. 10 walks from the pitching staff. More ouch.

Andrew Ruck
B.B.A. 2003

CatsUp
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RE: Early 2026 Season

Posted: 2/25/2026 8:13:35 PM

Andrew Ruck wrote:

I watched from about the sixth inning on and it was brutal. Small sample size but pitching isn�t the only issue from what I saw, although it�s a big one. Catching/judging flyballs, communication on pop ups, basic stuff. Had a problem with all that today. I guess wind was somewhat of a factor but WVU was playing under the same conditions and I didn�t see nearly the same ineptitude from them. I�m hoping warmer weather and more repetition leads to overall improvement.

Andrew Ruck
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Location: Columbus, OH
Post Count: 5,596

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RE: Early 2026 Season

Posted: 3/2/2026 10:33:59 AM

Dropped 3 of 4 to Dayton. We were outscored just 26-28 over the 4 games, our losses all being by 3 and our win being a blowout. In the win, freshman Mason Gass entered in the 3rd inning and finished the rest of the way, no runs and NO WALKS. Give him a starting spot, if he gets hit so be it he throws strikes. Despite not getting a start yet, Mason actually leads the team in innings pitched. Landon Price and Dillon Masters have been solid out of the pen as they were last year.

Max Palinski (OF) is one of few that has played every game yet has really struggled. As I mentioned earlier, on the pitching side Aiden Cook has been dreadful but keeps getting starts. These are the 2 players Coach See brought in from Ohio State and its starting to seem like they have unreasonably long leashes.

MAC play next weekend if the field can take all the rain expected this week. NIU at home is a chance to start with a positive series, need to find a way to take 2 and go from there.

Andrew Ruck
B.B.A. 2003

Diamond Cat
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RE: Early 2026 Season

Posted: 3/2/2026 11:56:56 AM

A Freshman putting zero's on the board for 6.2 innings and no walks has to mean immediate promo to starter at this point. Certainly a more competitive series. The rain forecast looks like some long interrupted games with NIU. Be nice to have one decent day to play two. Fingers crossed.

100%Cat
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RE: Early 2026 Season

Posted: 3/2/2026 1:56:40 PM

I'm by no means a college baseball or roster expert but I've been around and playing baseball pretty much my whole life. I expect it to be a rough year with the transition to a new coach. I was able to see most of the Saturday game vs Dayton before heading to the Convo for that mess. I saw some promise on Saturday, it wasn't all negative. Back to back innings we had 2 on and nobody out...but failed to score both times. One of our kids was asked to bunt in two AB's and failed both times to get a bunt down. The CF made a great sliding catch but also barely got two balls that looked routine and he misjudged. The wind was blowing out and that may have been a factor. One ball he almost didn't get back on and crashed into the fence, the other he charged then had to make a leaping catch because he almost over-ran it. Good news, he caught them both (but both were nearly disasters). Our pitchers battled hard and kept the game close.

My expectations for Year 1 under See are pretty low, I just hope to see some growth as the season progresses and hopefully that leads into a positive Years 2 and 3. It's typically tough for me to get to OU home games with work/family schedule but hopefully I can get to more games this spring.

Last Edited: 3/2/2026 1:57:58 PM by 100%Cat

BillyTheCat
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RE: Early 2026 Season

Posted: 3/2/2026 6:01:22 PM

100%Cat wrote:

It�s early, but I think we�re seeing that growth existing is this team seems to be more competitive

spongeBOB CATpants
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RE: Early 2026 Season

Posted: 3/3/2026 11:49:16 AM

I think we can all agree that this season is a wash, pains me to say but just shows how deep in a hole the program is currently in. Hiring See was a good first step. This will be a long season, my personal goal for the club is to earn some respect in conference play. Whether that be sneaking out a win against Kent, winning a couple series against weak opponents, winning a game or two against Miami, etc. Small goals but enough to inspire the clubhouse moving forward.

That all being said, I couldn't care less about the record in non-conference play. I care about the box scores because baseball is a game of numbers and that's where you find areas that need improvement. I care about See evaluating what he has and finding who is really here to compete and who isn't. We're in a different stage of college athletics and with the current state of the program, everybody should be on a one-year contact.

Find out who can throw strikes and give them the ball. Find out which hitters are going to compete every single pitch in the box and get them at bats. I don't care what year he is, how much scholarship he's on, how much NIL is involved. This is how you set the standard and establish a culture. I saw it first hand when Smith transitioned into the program so its not impossible.

Andrew Ruck
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Location: Columbus, OH
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RE: Early 2026 Season

Posted: 3/3/2026 12:48:51 PM

Agreed and good thoughts. The main thing we want is for incremental improvements See can point at when recruiting both High Schoolers and transfers. And hopefully start a buzz around the area that this regime is fun to play for and coaches players up well. Success could follow quickly. But for 2026, the goal in the MAC each weekend will be to not get swept.

Andrew Ruck
B.B.A. 2003

spongeBOB CATpants
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RE: Early 2026 Season

Posted: 3/4/2026 2:04:06 PM

Andrew Ruck wrote:

Agree on all points. See is a good recruiter, he recruited me (although I was probably his easiest sale). He's great with parents as well which can have a lot of influence on the high school recruits. I'm excited to see how he builds his roster in the coming years.

Andrew Ruck
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Location: Columbus, OH
Post Count: 5,596

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RE: Early 2026 Season

Posted: 3/9/2026 11:33:23 AM

Very frustrating, dropped 2 of 3 to NIU at home after winning game 1, offense did not do squat on Sat & Sun.

Team ERA is 9.27 with significantly more walks than strikeouts. It was hard to imagine the pitching being worse than last year, but here we are.

But like I said, goal should be to not get swept and I suppose we did that.

Andrew Ruck
B.B.A. 2003

Stand Up & Cheer
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Member Since: 8/18/2025
Post Count: 11

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RE: Early 2026 Season

Posted: 3/9/2026 7:05:24 PM

Looking at last year's 3 games vs. NIU vs. this year the pitching actually gave up 10 less runs (28 this year vs. 38 last). Pitching also improved this series to 25 Ks & 22 BBs vs. 18 Ks & 24 BBs in last year's NIU series. Pitching trend is improved but really tough to win games when you are giving up 9 runs on average a game in an NIU series this year vs. 12 last year. Also this vs. the bottom of the MAC teams is not good. The trend is better but still well below acceptable. Also does not help that the offense was down on both runs by 7 (17 vs. 24) and 16 hits (18 vs. 34) year-over-year NIU series. We have not replaced a lot of the power and production we lost last year offensively. Sure seems like pitching still has a lot further to improve and this past series the offense declined almost as much as the pitching improved vs a not very great NIU team. Hopefully we can see some trends improving as still early and going to have to see some different guys get chances and who responds.

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