COLUMBUS, Ohio — Just over two weeks ago on April 9, the Buckeyes were up north for the first game of the series at the Wolverines.
Redshirt-senior catcher Brent Todys worked himself ahead in the count 2-0 during his at-bat in the seventh inning, which saw the Buckeyes down one run with bases loaded and two outs. Todys swung at graduate right-hander Joe Pace’s offering, driving the ball the other way to beat the shift, and two runs came around to score and give Ohio State a 5-4 lead.
Two innings later, Todys laid down a safety squeeze bunt, and freshman center fielder Kade Kern raced home to provide insurance as the Buckeyes eventually won 7-4.
Todys is hitting .400 over his last eight games. The right-handed bat has doubled his season hit-total, and caught five runners stealing after nabbing just one through the month of March, and is beginning to see an increase in his trips to the plate.
“I’m just trying to do my job, honestly, just playing the game,” Todys said Sunday. “I just take pride in playing the game. Just go in there and just competing, being a ballplayer.”
Todys has spent most of this season splitting time at catcher with senior Archer Brookman. The pair share a similar pathway that has led to Bill Davis Stadium: They both rose through the junior-college ranks.
A two-time First Team All-Conference player at Westerville North High School, Todys continued his exceptional play by earning Second Team All-GCAA honors at Andrew College in Georgia, hitting .353 with 46 RBIs and 20 doubles.
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Now in his third season with his hometown Buckeyes, Todys entered April hitting .184 and went 9-for-49 at the plate with 12 strikeouts. Currently, the catcher boasts Ohio State’s third-highest batting average with .266.
“I think I’m just being myself,” Todys said. “I think I was trying to do too much in the beginning of the year, and the kind of hitter I am, I’m just at my best when I compete. I think I just got back to being myself and just competing.”
Head coach Greg Beals has watched Todys compete on the diamond for longer than the latter has been on the roster, and the veteran skipper said nothing drastic has changed in terms of preparation; Todys is simply playing to his strengths.
“Brent’s starting to be Brent, that’s all it is,” Beals said Saturday. “I think he got off to a slow start, and I think his mind got going faster than his bat was going, and I think now it’s a matter that he’s settled into the season and he’s being Brent Todys.”
For much of this season, Brookman has been the one who’s caught redshirt-junior lefty Seth Lonsway on what’s become known as ‘Lonsday’ at the ballpark.
When the left-hander toed the rubber this past Saturday, Todys’ name remained in the lineup, penned in the designated hitter spot. He took advantage of the extra opportunities at the plate by going 1-for-2 with a double, walk and pair of RBIs.
Todys’ veteran approach has caught the eye of his younger Buckeyes teammates, and Kern — who’s off to an electric start to his college career behind a team-best .365 batting average and 21 RBIs — said he’s seen Todys take more reps, something Lonsway echoed.
“Todys is working really hard in the cages. He’s been putting in a lot of extra work,” Lonsway said Saturday. “Even when I was warming up in the cages, he was in there getting some extra cuts in off the machine. You know, he puts in the work. If he puts his mind to it, he can do it.”
Since a four-game sweep of Indiana, the Buckeyes had lost back-to-back series and endured a 5-game losing streak. They bounced back with a series win over Penn State last weekend behind an 11-run Friday performance and 7-0 shutout Saturday.
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Todys has a strong belief in his ballclub, much like he did two years ago when he was a part of the Ohio State ballclub that became the lowest-ranked seed to win the Big Ten Tournament at No. 7.
Purdue awaits the veteran Buckeye and Ohio State for a three-game series in Columbus beginning Friday, and Todys said the biggest thing he and his teammates can do is take each game, each inning and each pitch one at a time as Ohio State chases the five teams ahead of it in the Big Ten Conference standings.
“We played to our strengths [in 2019],” Todys said. “It was honestly just a flip of the switch, we just came out there and we took care of business. It’s just how the game works; sometimes something clicks and in terms of that, everything clicked in 2019.
“This year, we have so much more talent, and I believe that once we put it all together, we’re gonna be just fine.”
