'Cats getting reputation for the long ball

Call it what you want, a bomb, blast, dinger, round-tripper, grand-salami, four-bagger, homer or home run - the Ohio University baseball team has hit every variation.  

 

Fans love the home run more then Bill Cosby loves Jell-O Pudding-Pops. Even now, in the baseball era tainted by steroid allegations in Major League Baseball, fans still can't help but stand up and cheer for a ball leaving the park.  

 

After Friday's 17-8 come-from-behind win against the No. 25 Kent State Golden Flashes, the Bobcats not only held their first-place position in the MAC, but they slugged seven balls over the outfield wall, something Gauntlett Eldemire just got to experience when he came to OU.

In high school, Eldemire's varsity baseball field at University School in Shaker Heights, Ohio didn't even have an outfield fence, but now he is second on the team in home runs (10) behind teammate and MAC leader Marc Krauss (17).

To coach Joe Carbone, who recorded his 600th win as a head coach against Eastern Michigan on April 11, it comes as no surprise that this team has 48 home runs (MAC leaders), and the swirling wind on Friday didn't change that at all.

"We just want to put a good swing on the ball, try and put some backspin on it, and see what happens," Carbone said. "You can't adjust your swing just because the wind is blowing in or if the wind is blowing out. Your swing is your swing."

This Bobcat team is loaded with talented hitters, including Robert Maddox III, who was drafted by the Atlanta Braves out of high school but decided to play college baseball instead. Maddox almost doubled his home-run total of four entering Friday's game, leaving with seven. In his first three at-bats, Maddox hit a two-run homer in the first inning to center field, a solo homer to right field in the third inning, and a three-run shot to left field in the fourth to extend his total from four to seven.

"We know we can hit the long ball, we know we can," Maddox said.

"I didn't have three home runs my whole life, from Little League all the way up through pro ball," Carbone said about Maddox's impressive day at the plate.

The secret to a good home-run swing has become more valuable to professional ball players in recent years because of the lucrative financial rewards that the long ball can bring, but for college players a homer is a way to stand out to professional scouts. Along with Eldemire and Maddox, Marc Krauss has been the anchor of this power-hitting club and possibly may even get drafted for his explosive bat.

Krauss is only three home runs away from tying Ohio's single-season record of 20 and is just four homers away from reigning as the second all-time home-run leader at Ohio.

Everyone has his own opinion on what makes a good home-run swing, but to Eldemire it isn't a big secret.

"All you have to do is connect with the ball with those metal bats and they seem to go," Eldemire said.

Metal bats are one of the only differences from the college game to the professional level, and allow more spring off the bat than wooden ones. Some critics of the college game worry about metal bats having too much spring to them and being dangerous to players and coaches, but as of now the NCAA has no intention of changing to wooden bats.

I have seen back-to-back home runs, back-to-back-to-back home runs, home runs that left the stadium, grand-slam home runs, walk-off home runs, home runs from pitchers and home runs that make history, but never have I been to a game where seven have left the yard. Watch out Mid-American Conference, the Bobcats hitters are like Chicago in 1871, on fire.