The CBB continues our countdown for the 2010 College Baseball season by checking in on the Top 100 Players in the country. We will be providing one player per day until we reach number 1.
We continue the list today with number 83 in our countdown with Rice senior RHP Mike Ojala. He is from Kingwood Texas where he attended Kingwood High School. He had an solid high school career as he was a two year letterwinner and went 18-5 with a 2.00 ERA.
Ojala’s freshman season saw him pitch in nine games with a 2-0 record and a 4.38 ERA in 12.1 innings. He had his breakout season in 2008 when he went 5-0 with a 4.97 ERA in 14 appearances (12 starts). He did struggle with his control as he walked 20 batters in only 54.1 innings of work while striking out 64.
During his junior season in 2009, Ojala continued his impressive record with a 5-0 record with a 2.17 ERA in 13 appearances (12 starts) in 66.1 innings of work. Ojala had “Tommy John” surgery on June 18th . He is expected to be back in April for the 2010 season where he will be used out of the bullpen until he gets back to full strength. He is a key figure if the Owls will make it back to Omaha after a one year hiatus.
I believe Ojala could be higher in this countdown but his injury concern actually has me worried on whether or not he will be able to pitch at such a high level ever again. All signs right now point to the fact that he will be fine but Tommy John surgery is always risky.
You can check out the rest of our Top 100 by clicking here.
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Ojala is definitely not up to full strength yet. He pitched 1/3rd an inning in Austin tonight, walking three, hitting Kevin Keyes, and allowing runs on a WP and SF. Texas also added a run on a passed ball that was outside the zone. Let’s hope for his sake that he quickly regains his pre-surgery form to help out Rice in the conference season.
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