“It was difficult. At the time, it was Greg Beals (who was fired after last season). I begged him and kept bugging him and finally got on the schedule,” Sogard said.
New coach Bill Mosiello, whose team is 22-23, could have nixed it but didn’t.
“You get those bigger schools that don’t feel like they want to travel. But their coach said, ‘Yeah, we’ll play a home-and-home (series) and play twice a year.’ They feel like it’s good for their program and good for ours. I really respect that out of those guys,” Sogard said.
The Raiders pulled out a 3-1 win Tuesday night, getting just six hits but capitalizing on seven walks.
They also prevailed, 3-0, on the road in March and posted their first two-game sweep of OSU since 1993. They also went 2-0 in ‘89 and 3-1 in ‘87.
They’re rolling again after seeing their season go sideways for a bit. They dropped three games at Milwaukee in early April — the first time they’ve been swept by a Horizon League foe since Valparaiso did it 10 years ago.
“That obviously was a tough weekend, but, every year, you have a game or a series that’s a good wake-up call, and that was one for us,” Sogard said.
“The last few weeks, our pitching has kind of come into form. We struggled early, had to move some guys around in roles. But they’re starting to get into a rhythm.”
The Raiders have won 10 of their last 12 games to jump to 26-18 overall and 15-6 and in a tie for first in the league with Northern Kentucky.
Lefty Sebastian Gongora, a third-year sophomore from Chaminade Julienne who is considered the HL’s top Major League prospect, has a conference-best 2.71 ERA and is 6-1 with 62 K’s in 63 innings.
Sophomore center fielder and lead-off hitter Andrew Patrick is fifth in batting at .317, tied for second in homers with 12 and is seventh in RBI’s with 38.
“In my mind, he’s the best hitter in the league — really talented,” Sogard said. “And he’s a good runner too. He’s had a couple games where he’s hit a home run, and, the next at-bat, he’s drag-bunting for a hit. He really has so many different tools in his tool box.”
Patrick is second in the league with 20 steals in 21 attempts, and the Raiders are back to being terrors on the basepaths.
They have 81 thefts in 102 attempts. They finished with 70 steals last year and 91 in 2021 but had 169 in 204 tries in 2019 — 54 more than the next-best league total.
“We’re trying to keep the aggressiveness up. That’s what we’ve talked about to our guys — even last night. They had a pitcher who was slow to the plate,” said Sogard, referring to Patrick’s two steals.
“We want guys confident and taking chances. It’s still a difficult play (for the defense). The catcher has to catch it, transfer it and make an accurate throw. We’re trying to get back to that style of play.”
The Raiders host NKU for three games starting at 3 p.m. Friday and have just two more series before the league tourney May 24-27.
They’re trying to win their seventh regular-season title in the last nine full seasons (they were second the other two years), but it’s never easy.
“We always have that target on our back — maybe like the old Yankees when they were winning a lot,” Sogard said.
“You’re going to get the other team’s A game. You’re going to get their best — and that’s what you want. We want the competition and thrive off that.”
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