Less than an hour from the first pitch of his collegiate career, Kade Kern didn’t know if he earned a spot in the Buckeyes starting lineup on Friday, but he knew he'd been working his hardest.
He checked the card after head coach Greg Beals posted the lineup, and slotted eighth in the batting order and playing right field was No. 46 - Kern’s number.
Come the second inning, Kern stepped up to the plate for the first time in scarlet and gray. The freshman swung at and popped up the first pitch he saw to Illinois junior shortstop Branden Comia, but drove hits in his next five at-bats, including a triple in the seventh inning and RBI double in the 13th.
The true freshman went 5-6 with an RBI and a home run shy of the cycle in his first game above the high school level, and followed by going 2-5 with four RBIs in Game 1 of Saturday's doubleheader. Kern started all four games during Ohio State's Opening Weekend in South Carolina against Big-Ten foe Illinois, and said his teammates had a large role in helping him make an instant impact rather quickly.
“All the veterans, my teammates - great group of guys - every single one of them separately came up to me and encouraged me, said to be myself, just go out there and have fun," Kern said Friday. "I think that helped settle the nerves a lot just knowing all of them have gone through the same thing."
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Junior shortstop Zach Dezenzo, who scored a team-leading five runs and slugged a fourth-best .412 over the first four games, said it was great to see Kern have the success he did in his first weekend, and that it will be the job of the older, more-experienced Buckeyes to stick with him and the rest of the team through the grind of a full season.
“It’s a long season; baseball is a brutal game at times,” Dezenzo said Sunday. “It was great to see him have all that success this weekend. We’re going to stick with him through everything, and we’re excited to see where he goes from here. I got all the confidence in the world.”
Kern's five-hit ballgame was the first such performance by an Ohio State hitter since former outfielder Dominic Canzone in 2018.
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Kern said he never "in a million years" would've expected to begin the season and his career with a five-hit ballgame or lead the team with a .471 batting average at the end of his first weekend of competition.
Some may still be familiarizing themselves with the newcomers to the Buckeyes baseball team in 2021, even learning more about those who saw time in the abbreviated 14-game season a year ago. In terms of who Kern is away from the field versus on the diamond, Kern said he would label those people the same.
“I would consider myself a good teammate," Kern said. "I think everyone on this team brings the same energy and everybody is great. It’s just a great group of guys. They are so encouraging; they really helped bring the nerves off."
Kern is a native of Archbold, Ohio, which is just over 50 miles west of Toledo. He was named the 2019-20 Gatorade Ohio Baseball Player of the Year and was a 2019 First Team All-State selection after hitting .431 with three home runs and 32 RBI.
The impact freshman said he had "tons of people" from back home who watched and texted him after his debut, and Kern hopes he inspired younger ballplayers.
“The town I’m from, we’re all a tight-knit group of people, so we’re all really close," Kern said. "There’s a lot of youngsters back home who look up to me. I love being up at the field and practicing there, just helping out the younger guys. It makes the whole experience way better knowing they’re along with me."
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The Buckeyes scored 24 runs and knocked 39 base hits through their first four games, including 10 extra-base hits. Beals said he’s stressing a philosophy hinging on driving the ball into gaps and allowing his hitters to run for opportunities to arise.
From a wider scope, Beals also said it’s been a challenge working with the freshmen class of Buckeyes given the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even wider, the loss of former catcher and team-RBI leader Dillon Dingler to the Detroit Tigers in the 2020 MLB draft means the Ohio State offense must find a way to produce in his void.
Beals said Kern's start to his career is "huge," and the impact will linger.
“When freshmen don’t get off to a start, they press a little bit, they start to question themselves a little bit because they don’t have a track record yet," Beals said Saturday. "When you don’t have a track record, you don’t have that level of confidence, something to fall back on. I think it’s huge for him to get out of the gates as well as he has to build his confidence to play at this level, to play for the Buckeyes."
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Kern went 1-4 with a run scored in Game 2 Saturday before cooling off and going 0-3 with a walk during Sunday's shutout loss to the Illini. But Kern knows how meticulous the sport he plays can be, and he's going to focus on continuing his pace while alongside his teammates.
“Baseball is such an uncontrollable game, and it’s a game of failure," Kern said. "Sometimes you find the holes and you get lucky. My teammates put me in the best position to succeed.
"It’s great to have a group of guys like that behind your back and you know they’re supporting you."
