Landon Price set to stay home with Ohio State Buckeyes
VAN WERT, Ohio (BVM) – The high school baseball career of Landon Price can be simply described in one word: special. He helped take Lincolnview baseball to new heights, and also left the program as one of the best to ever play.
Now, Price will be looking to continue that success in college. He won’t be going far, traveling a little over 100 miles south to Columbus to play for the Ohio State Buckeyes. Always his team growing up as an Ohio native, playing for the Buckeyes was long a dream that will soon become reality.
“I’ve been a Buckeye my whole life, I’ve always rooted on the Buckeyes in everything,” Price said.
Price began getting recruited in his freshman year, as the left-handed pitcher began throwing with a velocity in the low 80s.
“I think seeing that from an upcoming freshman, especially from the left side, kind of got some colleges’ heads turned,” Price mentioned.
His first official recruiting call came from another in-state school, Ohio University, which Price described as nerve-wracking being a 15-year-old freshman. From there, however, his recruiting took off, as he received plenty of interest from multiple schools. Yet, Ohio State remained at the top of Price’s list.
“Everything just kind of flew by after that,” Price said. “It all went so fast, there were so many phone calls … Ohio State was actually my first offer that was given out and I think it was me actually showing my interest in them.”
After he reached out to the Buckeyes through calls with their pitching coach and additional emails, a strong bond was formed, soon leading to his dream offer.
“They said, ‘Alright, let’s make it happen,’” Price said. “I think their interest in me and my interest in them, it was just really good from the start.”
Recently, Price also learned who he’d be playing for at Ohio State. After 12 seasons at the helm, the Buckeyes let go of Greg Beals in the spring. They have since replaced him with former TCU coach Bill Mosiello, who brings over a wealth of experience, coaching over 90 major league players and making 16 NCAA Tournament appearances in his 35-year coaching career.
Price is excited to get started in Columbus, and for the pitcher, it will be all about making an immediate impact as he begins his freshman season.
“I definitely want to make an impact that freshman year,” Price said. “I’m going to try my best as soon as I set foot on campus in the fall and then see where it goes from there. I want to be able to compete for some innings in my freshman year, for sure.
“With the new coach coming in, it’ll be that much more important for me to get my name out there and compete every single day in practice.”
Hard work, competing and making his name known are things Price has done time and again throughout his baseball career. With his dad on the board of a local ballpark five minutes down the road, Price spent the majority of his youth at the diamond.
He has also played other sports throughout his life, taking up golf in the fall and basketball in the winter throughout high school, but his talent in baseball has always stood above the rest, as has his love for the game.
“Just being out there with your friends,” Price said about what he loves most when it comes to baseball. “When I was younger, we had a pretty close group of guys that have been playing together since we were about that age. Seeing them at school and then going to the ballpark right after school, that was really the best part about it, just being with your friends.”
Throughout his career, Price has evolved into a true leader that has a high baseball IQ. Part of that came from his travel baseball career, as he began playing with Ohio Elite around 10 years old, and has most recently played with Bo Jackson Elite out of Columbus.
“I played with them from 15U until 17U,” Price said of Bo Jackson Elite. “The Bo Jackson Elite experience for me was great.”
Price’s travel career isn’t finished quite yet, as this summer he will play for the Ohio Warhawks out of Springfield, Ohio.
“I’m really looking forward to playing against, I think, even better competition than what I’m used to,” Price added. “We have kids from California, Florida, Las Vegas … I’m really looking forward to the opportunity.”
While his travel experience has helped progress his career, what really stands out when looking at Price’s baseball tenure thus far is his time at Lincolnview High School. When he was a freshman, Price got time on the mound and in the outfield as he helped the Lancers to the district semifinals.
Sadly, Price’s sophomore season never happened due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the motivation of that lost season set the stage for an incredible final two seasons at Lincolnview.
“I was definitely really excited for that sophomore year,” Price said. “I committed to Ohio State in January of my sophomore year, so that year would have been my first chance to really show everyone what I was made of … I heard the news and I was just in awe. But the biggest thing for me to kind of get through that time was continuing to do anything I could at home. That year is when I really started my love for the weight room.”
The work Price put in paid off for not only himself, but his Lincolnview team as a whole, as the Lancers made a run all the way to the OHSAA Division IV state championship game.
To get there, Price threw an absolute gem in which he allowed just two hits and struck out 14 in the state semifinals. Unfortunately, the Lancers would fall short in the title game, but the run they made that season was something they’ll always remember.
“Our community support was awesome, my teammates were awesome,” Price said. “That tournament run was really special.
“That state semifinal, it was just an awesome feeling to win that game. The championship game, it wasn’t our best … Things really weren’t going our way right from the beginning.”
Despite the tough ending to the year, it was a season that was also very impressive from an individual standpoint for the lefty, as he was named a MaxPreps All-American and the Division IV player of the year in Ohio. Price pitched 80 innings as a junior with a 0.17 ERA and 162 strikeouts, going a perfect 11-0.
“Once I did get all those accolades, I knew I had to follow it up my senior year, or at least try to do so,” Price noted. “That’s kind of where my mind went. I think it was good for me to continue to progress and continue to get better.”
Going into his senior season, Price and his team were motivated coming off that state loss, and knew they had the talent to make another run at it.
“I think it helped our group of seniors,” Price said about the state loss in his junior year. “Us three guys, we were all starters on that team and I think we just all kind of looked at each other and said, ‘Man, we really want to make it back and get another shot at that gold trophy.’”
At first, the goal of making it back to state may have seemed unlikely. The 0-3 start that Lincolnview had could have made some less experienced teams uneasy, but the Lancers rallied, putting together separate winning streaks of seven and 11 games, and making it back to the state tournament yet again.
“There might have been some guys on our team with some doubts, but I knew once we got completely into the swing of things and were able to throw as many innings as we could, I knew that we had a really good chance of making it really far,” Price mentioned.
Once at state, the Lancers were much more relaxed with their prior experience, and put their sole focus on bringing home a title.
“I think going back-to-back is harder than going the first time, because you kind of have that target on your back,” Price explained. “You’re going to see everybody’s best every time you go out. I think that was a little bit of our problem with our 0-3 start as well … After those three games, we went on a really nice run. Going into our tournament run, it was just the confidence and I think everyone was on the same page that we wanted to get back to Akron and compete for another state championship. Once we did get there, it definitely wasn’t as nerve-wracking, for me at least.”
Once again, Lincolnview won its state semifinal game thanks to a tremendous pitching performance by Price’s cousin, Dane Ebel, putting the Lancers in position to bring home their first state title since 1962. However, for the second straight year, it was just not meant to be.
Sporting a perfect 24-0 record for his high school career, Price took the mound in the title game for the Lancers, but did not have his best stuff. He gave up seven hits across the first three innings as Lincolnview fell behind Russia, 3-2. Overall, he went 5.2 innings – being lifted due to hitting the 125 max-pitch count – giving up five runs on eight hits to Russia while striking out 10 batters.
“Things definitely just didn’t go my way,” Price said. “Just continued to grind, control what I can control and get guys out. They had a couple of solid hits and a couple that were just put in places where our guys weren’t.”
As Price left the game, Keagan Farris entered in a tough position, and Russia began pouring it on to lead 10-2 by the end of the top half of the sixth inning. Although they were up 1-0 early, Lincolnview now faced a daunting deficit. They did not give up, however, rallying for a couple more runs, but in the end, a 10-4 loss ended the Lancers’ season and gave Russia its first state championship since 1971.
Price struggled in his final game, but the Lancers would not have been where they were without the senior lefty, who was once again showered with accolades for his performance, including another Division IV player of the year award and an all-state honor.
“They mean a lot,” Price said. “I grew up walking through the hallways of my high school, seeing all those pictures up on the wall of all-state performers. Ever since a young age, I knew that I wanted to have my picture up there, make my mark and just leave a legacy for our community and have everybody remember my name.”
The standout pitcher has done that and then some, finishing with a 24-1 overall record, 0.92 career ERA and 355 career strikeouts. He leaves the Lancers holding 12 program records, including the career ERA and total strikeout marks, as well as pitching wins in a season (11) and career (24), strikeouts in a season (162), and ERA in a season (0.17).
He was also tremendous at the plate over the last four years, twice setting the program record for hits in a season with 47, setting the marks for runs in a season (40) and career (85), and finishing with a program-leading career batting average of .446.
Price also leaves Lincolnview as a multi-time conference player of the year, district player of the year and Division IV player of the year.
“Obviously, those numbers and everything are awesome,” Price said. “I think I’ll be able to hold onto a lot of those records for a pretty long time. But the biggest thing for me is just the way I treated people. They’ll remember me more for that than they will for any record I ever broke or any state run we ever had.”
It’s truly a lasting legacy that Price left at Lincolnview, and now he will look to do the same at Ohio State. As he gets to Columbus, Price hopes to get his fastball into the low 90s, perhaps putting himself in position to be an MLB Draft pick in the future. Growing up idolizing a fellow left-hander in Dodgers’ pitcher Clayton Kershaw, it would be an honor for Price to be able to follow in his footsteps in the pros someday.
“I’ve definitely given it some thought,” Price said. “I think I’m going to have to gain some more velocity on my fastball … Just trusting in my trainers, trusting in those guys at Ohio State to continue to get us stronger, continue to get us faster and all those things that tie into getting more velocity … I would definitely be all for the opportunity.”
No matter where his bright future takes him, Price is bound to succeed. It’s exactly what he did at Lincolnview, and his time playing for his home-state Buckeyes should be no different.
