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Koch, Campbell contribute for KSU
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Kent State’s Joe Koch, an Austintown Fitch High graduate, makes contact during Tuesday’s practice at Schoonover Stadium in Kent.
KENT
In the movie “Moneyball,” Oakland Athletics General Manager Billy Beane, portrayed by Brad Pitt, hypothetically asked, “How can you not be romantic about baseball?”
The Kent State baseball team is in fact romantic, and motivated and legendary.
Ranked No. 25 in the nation, the Golden Flashes are blazing a trail that no other team in school, or Mid-American Conference history has before.
And they’re led by two Mahoning Valley natives.
Junior Evan Campbell (West Branch) and fifth-year senior Joe Koch (Austintown Fitch) played integral roles in last Friday’s 21-inning 7-6 win over Southeastern Conference powerhouse, Kentucky. It was the second-longest game in NCAA Tournament history.
On Saturday, Kent State knocked off No. 16 Purdue before downing Kentucky again on Sunday to win its first regional championship.
Saturday, the Flashes start a best-of-three series against Oregon in Eugene, Ore. Win two games and they’re off to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb.
“It’s crazy,” Campbell said, “all the publicity and everything. Baseball kind of gets overlooked here. Year in and year out, we’ve been pretty successful and now we’re getting some respect around campus and nationally which is just awesome.”
Koch said, “You go from having a few thousand of people knowing who Kent State is to now, millions and millions of people following and respecting us at Kent State.”
First, it’s necessary to go back to that 21-inning marathon. Koch put the Golden Flashes up 6-5 in the top of the 18th with a single through the left side. Although the Wildcats answered in the home half, Koch came up again in the top of the 21st with a bunt single to lead off the inning. Two batters later, freshman Alex Miklos drove him in with a triple for the winning run.
“I didn’t see it, honestly,” Koch said. “I rounded third and I saw the whole dugout just light up and I knew that I was going to score.”
It was fitting, almost, that Miklos and Koch were involved on that play. After riding the bench for the first three years of his career, Koch finally won the starting left field job in his junior year.
After struggling to begin his senior year, though, Miklos overtook him.
“Most people, when you lose your job to somebody else, it’s not easy to see that every day,” KSU head coach Scott Stricklin said. “Not many 22-year-old kids are going to handle it that way. Joe is the best teammate we have on this team.”
So when his seeing-eye single helped put the Flashes on top, if only for an inning, Stricklin thought to himself, “he deserves this.”
Campbell made what Stricklin called, “the perfect play,” to save a Kentucky run from scoring, but “the biggest hit in the history of Kent State baseball” was Campbell’s three-run home run that sent them to the super regional.
“I just jumped on it,” Campbell said of his eighth-inning, two-out blast. “I knew I had to just put it in play. It was a first-pitch fastball right where I liked it.”
The Golden Flashes (44-17), riding a 20-game winning streak, don’t want this magical season to end in the Pacific Northwest.
“I don’t want to see these guys for the last time,” Koch said. “That’s what keeps us all going and motivated. It’s not just our career that could be over, it’s the fun and the pure joy of playing the game you love with your best friends.”
Now that’s something to be romantic about.