BY STEVE KRAH
Benjamen Simmons and his Oakland City (Ind.) University baseball teammates have combined their talents to go 36-13 overall and 17-7 in the NAIA River States Conference so far during the 2024 season.
The Mighty Oaks have already surpassed the win totals of 2023 (34) and 2022 (31).
Every additional victory adds to the single-season school record.
Simmons, a 5-foot-10, 185-pound right-handed pitcher, is 9-1 with 2.61 earned run average as one of OCU’s weekend starters (the others are junior right-hander Gehrig Tenhumberg at 7-2 and 2.26 and senior right-hander Thomas King at 5-1 and 1.93).
“Our pitching has always been very effective,” says Simmons, 22 and a Business Marketing major. “We’ve been dominating on the mound.
“The biggest difference this year to last year is that the offense has been producing a lot better. It allows us to win games we wouldn’t have won last year and the year before.”
As evidence of the run support, heading into a non-conference game April 23 at Bethel University (McKenzie, Tenn.), Oakland City has scored 382 runs and allowed 160 in 49 games. That’s an average of 7.79 runs scored per contest and 3.26 yielded.
A deep 2024 OCU pitching staff (22 have made at least one mound appearance) has a combined 2.95 ERA.
Regular mid-week starters have been freshman right-hander Mick Uebelhor (3-1, 2.01) and junior left-hander Cole Lambird (2-1, 5.96).
Sophomore left-hander Evan Price has record four of the Mighty Oak’s 11 saves.
Oakland City carries a total roster near 50 with some junior varsity games. All pitchers are active during varsity games with about eight or nine seeing the bulk of the in-game action.
The large number of arms allow for live at-bats and scrimmages even during the regular season.
“We’re constantly playing baseball and staying in game shape,” says Simmons, who has 57 strikeouts and 23 walks in 62 innings over 12 outings this season. He was named RSC Pitcher of the Week Feb. 20.
What has made Simmons so effective?
“I’m able to command all my pitches,” says Simmons. “I locate very well. I always try to mimic (Hall of Famer) Greg Maddux. I don’t throw the hardest, but I have really good movement. I don’t throw anything flat.
“I put my pitches where I want them most of the time. I’d say that’s my strength.”
Throwing from a low three-quarter arm angle, Simmons get a lot of arm-side run on his pitches. His mix includes a sinker, change-up, slider and four-seam fastball.
“My change-up has probably been my best pitch this year,” says Simmons. “I throw it 35 to 40 percent of the time, especially to left-handed hitters (moving like a screwball).
“I like playing it off my sinker. They are very similar. There’s about a 10 mph change in velocity and the change-up has a lot of depth to it.”
Last fall, he reached 89 mph with a few deliveries. This spring, he sits at 86 to 87 mph with his four-seam and 84 to 86 with the sinker.
Simmons threw a four-seamer and slider in high school. The other pitches have been developed in college.
A reliever as a freshman in 2022, Simmons filled in as a starter and excelled when a teammate got hurt halfway through the RSC schedule and has been in that role ever since.
The 2022 season was also one in which Simmons was named a third team All-American by the National Christian College Athletic Association.
Simmons has not played summer collegiate baseball, using the time to develop his pitches and strength while rest his arm. Doing much of his training on his own, he has done some at Ryan Miller’s Complete Game Softball and Baseball Academy in Evansville.
Andy Lasher has been Mighty Oaks head coach since April 2020.
“He’s very straight-forward,” says Simmons of Lasher. “He cares about winning. He likes to give opportunities to a lot of coaches. I know a lot of coaches will have their favorites. If he sees you working hard, he’s going to let you go out there for sure.
“That’s what he did with me and it panned out. I love him. He’s a great coach and he cares a lot about the program he’s built.”
Lasher’s staff features first-year pitching coach first-year pitching coach Dakota Greer.
“I love him,” says Simmons of Greer, a former left-handed pitcher in the Olney (Ill.) Central College and Midway (Ky.) University programs. “He knows baseball very well. He cares. He’s on-campus all the time. He’s in the weight room with the guys.
“He’s very present. I like that about him.”
Jack Murphy is in his third season on the OCU staff and student assistant Treven Madden his first.
Born and raised in Evansville, Ind., Benjamen Simmons got his start in the Plaza Park leagues and was coached by father Danny Simmons.
“I was with my buddies,” says Benjamen. “I wasn’t super-serious about baseball.”
At 12, he started playing at Mulzer Park. At 14, he was with the Newburgh Inferno travel ball team. At 15, he played for the Newburgh American Legion Post 44 Junior team that lost just three games all summer.
“I built a passion for baseball,” says Simmons, who spent three summers of Babe Ruth League ball with McCutchanville Ball Club and in his senior year at Evansville Harrison High School the Post 44 Seniors.
Josh Heldt was the head coach at Harrison in Simmons’ first three prep seasons. Houston Dillman came on for his senior year of 2021.
“Heldt wanted us to do really well,” says Simmons. “Dillman was the best players coach I’ve ever had. He pulled for his guys more than any coach ever had.
“He always looked out for me.”
Benjamen is the youngest of account executive Danny and former nurse Suzanne Simmons’ three children behind Brianna and Caleb. All three kids went to Harrison.
The youngest Simmons decided on OCU for its proximity to home so his parents can easily see him play. He has made the 30-minute commute all three years.
“I enjoy the small campus life aspect,” says Simmons, who is part of student body of about 650 with 65 to 70 percent of those being athletes.
The private school in Gibson County sponsors eight sports for men and eight for women.
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